UBRAHY  OF  PPJWCETON 

r  ~^ 

I   OCT  3  I  21 


THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


BV  2540^.856  1917 
Smgmaster,  Elsie,  1879- 

1958. 

The  story  of  Lutheran 

missions 


The 
Story  of 
Lutheran 
Missions 


Elsie  Singmaster 


^->^  *-.  \  Vj 


>:,.4 


'         \  \ 


r 


y'hu.  'QjjjuL^  ^/t^^u^^ 


^^/UuU^i^i^i^^ 


Ml 


O^ 


-lf^7 


PORTRAIT    OF    A.    H.    FRANCKE. 


The 
Story  of  Lutheran  Missions 


BY 


ELSIE  SINGMASTER 

(Mrs.  Elsie  Singmaster  Lewars) 


LIBRARY  OF  PRINCETON 


THEOLOGICAL  SEMIt4ARY 


Published  by 

Co-operalive  Literature  Committee  Woman's  Missionary  Societies 

Lutheran  Church 


Copyright,   1917 

By  the 

Co-operative    Literature    Committee    Woman's    Missionary    Societies 

Lutheran   Church 


j  »  V  i  aw*.*HS  ^  » t  A>idU 


^  '^.  i^-yu^Ois 


PRESS    OF 

SURVEY    PUBLISHING    CO., 

COLUMBIA,    S.    C. 


FOREWORD 

For  many  years  there  has  been  both  a  need  and  a  call 
for  a  book  on  Lutheran  missions,  which  could  be  used 
as  a  text  book  and  also  as  a  book  of  reference,  Mrs. 
Lewars  has  met  this  need  and  answered  this  call  with 
The  Story  of  Lutheran  Missions.  It  is  fitting  that 
this  book  should  make  its  appearance  in  the  Quadri- 
centennial  Year  of  the  Reformation  and  that  it  should 
be  the  first  book  issued  by  the  first  Co-operative  Litera- 
ture Committee  of  the  Woman's  Missionary  Societies 
of  the  Lutheran  Church,  representmg  the  General 
Synod,  the  General  Council,  and  the  United  Synod  in 
the  South. 

The  courage  and  devotion  of  our  self-sacrificing  mis- 
sionary pioneers  has  been  little  known  even  among 
Lutherans.  Our  hearts  must  be  thrilled  as  we  read  of 
the  superb  courage  and  the  unselfish  devotion  of  the 
brave  men  and  women  who,  surrounded  by  indififer- 
ence  were  fired  with  unquenchable  missionary  zeal  to 
carrying  the  Word  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 

"Through  peril,  toil  and  pain,"  they  blazed  the  way 
for  Protestant  missions.  May  this  study  of  the  Refor- 
mation of  the  sixteenth  century  and  the  subsequent 
efforts  to  carry  the  Word  into  all  of  the  world  help  to 
unite  our  Lutheran  forces  in  a  determined  missionary 
purpose  to  hasten  the  transformation  of  the  twentieth 
century. 

Co-operative  Literature  Committee: 
Mrs.    E.   C.   Cronk,    Chairman,    Member   from   United   Synod. 
Miss    Sallie    Protzman,    Member    from    General    Synod. 
Mrs.   Chas.   L.   Fry,   Member  from  General   Council. 

Literature    Headquarters    for    Missionary    Societies: 
General  Synod,   105  E.   21st  St.,   Baltimore,   Md. 
General    Council,    844    Drexel    Building,    Philadelphia,    Pa. 
United   Synod,    1617    Sumter   St.,   Columbia,   S.    C. 


CONTENTS 

Foreword 

List  of  Illustrations 

Chapter  I — The  Beginnings 3 

Chapter  II — Pioneers  and  Methods 29 

Chapter  III — The   Lutheran   Church   in   India     71 

Chapter  IV — The   Lutheran   Church   in  Africa   115 

Chapter  V — The  Lutheran   Church   in    China, 

Japan  and  Elsewhere 159 

Chapter   VI — Lutheran    Foreign    Missions    on 

the  Western  Continent 199 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Facing 

Portrait  of  A.  H.  Francke  Frontispiece 

Bartholomew  Ziegenbalg    VIII 

Christian    Frederick    Schwartz    VIII 

Louis   Harms     9 

Hermannsburg    Parsonage    9 

John  Evangelist   Gossner    24 

Men's  Bathing   Ghat   at  Purulia    24 

Stall  High  School  for  Girls,  Guntur,  India    33 

Faculty  of  Vl^atts  Memorial   College  for  Men,   Guntur  33 

Hospital   for   V^omen   and    Children,    Guntur    41 

Hospital   for  Women   and   Children,   Rajahmundry    ...  56 

Central   Girl's   School,   Rajahmundry    64 

Chapel   of  Leper  Asylum,   Kodur,   India.    (Joint   Synod 

of  Ohio)     73 

Inmates  of  Leper  Asylum    73 

All    India    Lutheran    Conference    in    1914.      Delegates 

from    Eight    Missions     88 

A    Malagasy    Witch    Doctor    97 

Native    Lutheran   Ministers   in   Madagascar    97 

Main  Station  at  Muhlenberg,  Liberia,  Africa    105 

Girls  of  Emma  V.  Day  School,  Muhlenberg,  Africa   .  .  122 

Carrying   Water    and    Sewing   in    Garden    122 

Central  China  Lutheran  Theological  Seminary,  Shekow, 

Hupeh,    China    128 

Chapel     and     Mission     Homes,     Chikungshan,     China. 

(United  Norwegian)    128 

Administration     Building     and    Class   Rooms,     Kyushu 

Gakuin,   Kumamoto,   Japan    137 


Pastor's    Residence,    Chapel,    and    Student    Dormitory, 

Tokyo.      American     Missionaries,     Native     Pastors 

and   Workers  with  Wives   and   Children    137 

First    Graduating    Class    from    Kindergarten    at    Ogi, 

Japan     152 

Group    of   Theological    Students,    Kumamoto    152 

Lutheran   Church   in   Borneo    161 

Lutheran   Church  in  Java    161 

Officers  and  Teachers  of  Lutheran  Sunday  School,  New 

Amsterdam,    British    Guiana    192 

Ituni  School  in  School  Room  Which  is  Also  the  Church    192 

Some   Indian   Members  of   Ituni   Congregation    192 

Lutheran    Chapel,    Monacillo,    Porto    Rico,    with    Two 

Missionaries    and   Two    Native   Workers    201 

Porto    Rican    Hut    with    Miss    Mellander    and    Three 

Members  of  Church  at  Palo   Seco    201 

Immanuel     Colored     Lutheran     College,     Greensboro, 

North    Carolina    216 

Bethany  Indian  Mission   Band,   Wittenberg,   Wisconsin 

(Norwegian   Synod)    216 


PREFACE 

The  author  acknowledges  her  indebtedness  to  the 
many  persons  who  have  furnished  data  for  The  Story 
of  Lutheran  Missions,  and  to  those  who  have  read 
the  manuscript.  The  authorities  consulted  have  been 
chiefly  The  History  of  Protestant  Missions  by  Gustav 
Warneck,  D.D.,  The  History  of  Chirstian  Missions 
by  C.  H.  Robinson,  D.D.,  The  History  of  Lutheran 
Missions  by  the  Rev.  Preston  A.  Laury,  Geschichte 
der  evangelischen  Heidenmission  by  R.  Gareis,  The 
Lutheran  Encylopedia  and  the  Enclyopedia  of  Mis- 
sions, beside  numerous  magazine  articles  and  reports. 
Only  enough  statistics  have  been  included  to  indicate 
the  size  of  each  mission.  With  the  book  should  be 
used  such  admirable  books  and  pamphlets  as  Mission- 
ary Heroes  of  the  Lutheran  Church,  Our  First  De- 
cade in  China,  The  United  Norwegian  Mission  Field 
in  China,  Our  Colored  Mission,  Our  India  Story, 
and  the  many  interesting  illustrated  mission  reports. 
Above  all,  maps  should  be  constantly  referred  to. 

If  the  study  of  The  Story  of  Lutheran  Missions 
gives  to  the  reader,  as  its  preparation  has  given  to 
the  author,  a  sense  of  the  essential  unity  of  the  Lu- 
theran Church  and  a  renewed  love  for  her  and  her  his- 
tory, it  will  achieve  its  purpose. 


CHAPTER  I. 

The  Beginnings 

The  Purpose  of  the  Book. 

The  Missionary  Impulse. 

The  Benefits  of  Missionary  Study. 

The  Plan  of  Salvation. 

Salvation    Intended    for   the    Whole    World. 
Israel's   Conception   of   God's   Purpose. 
The  Jew    as    a    Missionary. 

The  Septuagint. 

The   Roman   Empire. 

The    Supreme    Missionary. 

The  Sending  of  the  Disciples. 

Paul. 
The  Early   Church. 

Its  Extent. 

A  Change   in  Method. 

Early   Missionaries. 

The   Church    and    State. 

Boniface. 

The   Church   of   Germany. 

Martin  Luther. 

"What   must   I   do   to   be   saved?" 

An    Answer    Found. 

A  New  Evangel. 

A    Pure    and    Living    Stream. 

The  Bible   Translated. 

Luther    and    Missions. 

The  Beginnings  of  Lutheran   Missions. 

In  Europe   and  Asia. 
In   Africa. 
In   North  America. 

In    South    America.  , 

Justinian    von    Welz. 

His    Appeal    Ridiculed. 

A  Martyr. 

A   Hero. 


The   Spring   at   Hand. 
Philip  Spener. 
A.  H.  Francke. 
The   School   at   Halle. 
The   First  Missionary   Hymn. 


Chapter  I 

THE  BEGINNINGS 

Purpose  of  ^^  ^^  ^^^  object  of  this  book  to  give  a 

the   Book.  general  survey  of  the  missionary  labors 

of  the  Lutheran  Church  in  all  lands.  A  knowledge 
of  the  work  of  our  own  Church  is  of  first  importance, 
both  that  we  may  be  well  informed  concerning  those 
enterprises  which  we  support  and  that  we  may  through 
them  become  interested  in  the  achievements  of  other 
churches. 

This  account  of  Lutheran  missions  cannot  be  ex- 
haustive. Volumes  have  been  written  upon  the 
history  of  many  Lutheran  missions.  Many  names 
which  deserve  record  must  be  omitted  and  those  he- 
roes who  have  been  selected  for  mention  are  no  more 
devoted,  no  more  noble  than  many  others  whose  names 
are  lost  to  human  recollection. 

^,  Even  if  the  specific  commands  of  our 

Missionary  Lord  were    lacking,    we    believe    that 

Impu  se.  every     good     Christian     would     find 

in  his  own  heart  a  missionary  impulse  which  could 
not  be  denied.  There  is  no  good  news  which  we  do 
not  hasten  to  tell ;  the  man  who  would  withhold  from 
his  neighbors  that  which  would  benefit  them  is  right- 
ly condemned.    Would  it  not  be  strange  if  we  told  all 


4  THE  STORY  OP  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

good  news  but  the  greatest?  The  Christian  has  found 
peace  and  life  and  hope  in  the  Gospel,  surely  it  is 
his  duty  and  it  should  be  his  chief  joy  to  tell  the  good 
news  to  others. 

rj,,  -D  n^  The  study  of  missions  is  a  fascinating 
of  Missionary  pursuit.  Its  subject  matter  is  the  no- 
Study,  j^jgg^  jj^  ^j^g  world — the  history  of  the 
evangelizing  and  Christianizing  of  mankind.  The 
characters  are  heroes  and  heroines.  The  effect  of 
such  study  is  not  only  inspiring  but  improving.  The 
student  will  gain  through  diligent  attention  to  the 
courses  offered  by  mission  boards  a  mass  of  general 
information  which  could  be  gained  so  easily  in  no 
other  way.  He  will  visit  all  the  countries  of  the 
world ;  he  will  hear  something  of  their  history,  their 
geography,  their  flora  and  fauna.  He  will  see  Eliot 
and  Campanius  preaching  to  the  American  Indians,  he 
will  see  Hans  Egede  laboring  among  the  Greenland- 
ers,  he  will  hear  of  the  wise  colonial  policy  of  Eng- 
land, of  the  amazing  devotion  and  great  learning  of 
the  Germans,  he  will  observe  the  daily  life  of  the  mis- 
sion stations  w^here  the  sick  are  healed,  where  lepers 
are  cared  for,  where  to  everyone  the  Gospel  is  preached. 
The  opening  of  windows  into  the  wide  world  is  not 
the  least  of  the  rewards  for  a  study  of  missions. 

Before  beginning  the  actual  history  of  Lutheran 
missions  we  will  review  briefly  Christian  missions  be- 
fore the  establishment  of  the  Protestant  Church,  so 
that  the  student  may  connect  the  present  with  the 
past. 


THE   BEGINNINGS  5 

„  ,  .  ,  Christ  did  not  present  to  the  Jews  the 
Salvation  In-  •  r        i       •  r  i 

tended  for  the  first    intimation    of    salvation    for    the 

Whole    World,  ^^^j^^j^    ^^.^^.^j^       j^^^    ^s    ^^    spiritual 

truths  which  He  elaborated  and  fulfilled  were  shad- 
owed forth  in  the  Old  Testament,  so  was  the  mis- 
sionary idea.  Here  we  find  the  hidden  seeds,  the 
promises  and  prophecies  which  were  to  mature  and 
to  be  fulfilled  in  the  New  Testament.  God  is  re- 
vealed as  the  Creator  of  the  whole  world.  It  was 
all  mankind  which  sinned  in  Adam,  the  mankind  which 
God  had  made  "of  one  blood".  Saint  Paul  makes 
clear  to  the  Ephesians  the  fact  that  the  Gentiles  are 
"fellow  heirs  and  fellow  members  of  the  body".  God 
said  to  Abraham  that  in  him  should  "all  the  fami- 
lies of  the  earth  be  blessed." 

,       „    rt  Gradually  in  the  nation  of  Israel  there 

Israel  s   Con-  •' 

ception  of  developed  the  idea  of  a  new  covenant 

God's    Purpose,    ^f    g^^^^       ^yj^j^    ^j^^    growth    of    this 

idea  it  became  more  and  more  clear  to  Israel's  proph- 
ets and  seers  that  Israel  was  the  center  of  a  great 
kingdom  which  God  should  gather  from  all  nations. 
Many  testimonies  may  be  found  to  this  new  con- 
sciousness. "For  the  earth  shall  be  filled  with  the 
knowledge  of  the  glory  of  the  Lord  as  the  waters 
cover  the  sea."  "For  from  the  rising  of  the  sun 
even  unto  the  going  down  of  the  same,  my  name  shall 
be  great  among  the  Gentiles."  In  the  Prophet  Jonah 
we  have  an  Old  Testament  missionary,  proud  and  un- 
willing, but  a  witness,  nevertheless,  to  the  fact  that 


6  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

God's  mercy  extended  not  alone  to  Israel  but  to  all 
His  works. 

The  Jew  as  Unconsciously  to  themselves  the  Jews 
a  Missionary,  were  engaged  in  missionary  work. 
Trained  in  seclusion,  then  carried  into  captivity  or 
trading  in  all  known  quarters  of  the  world,  they  con- 
tinued to  worship  the  living  God.  They  worshipped 
Him  in  private  and  in  public,  their  synagogues  ris- 
ing plain  and  austere  among  the  impure  temples  of 
the  heathen  deities.  Long-suffering,  devout,  faithful, 
they  did  God's  great  task. 

About   two   hundred   years   before   the 

The  Septuagint.   ,  .    ,       r  ^,     .        ,       t  t  i     i 

birth  01  L-hnst  the  Jews  accomplished 

an  important  missionary  work.  They  were  now  no 
longer  in  Judea  alone,  but  lived  all  over  the  Roman 
Empire.  For  this  scattered  host  the  rabbis  translated 
the  Hebrew  Scriptures  into  Greek,  the  common  speech. 
The  translation  is  called  the  Septuagint  because  it 
was  made  by  seventy  men.  Here  is  the  first  great 
spreading  of  the  Living  Word.  The  Septuagint  was 
read  not  only  by  the  Jews  but  by  many  learned  Greeks, 
who,  while  they  did  not  accept  its  teachings,  yet  ad- 
mired its  eloquence.  One  of  the  greatest  factors  in 
the  success  of  the  early  Christian  Church  was  this  ac- 
quaintance of  the  Greeks  with  the  Hebrew  Scriptures. 
The  Roman  ^^^  the  fulfillment  of  Old  Testament 
Empire.  prophecies  the  world  was  preparing  in 

other  ways.  The  Roman  Empire  was  at  the  height 
of  its  power,  its  roads  led  everywhere,  it  had  pushed 
back  the  boundaries  of  the  world,   it  was  adding  to 


THE   BEGINNINGS  7 

itself  great  barbarian  nations,  little  dreaming  that  all 
its  pride  was  to  serve  the  will  of  the  Hebrew's  God! 
The  Supreme       When   the   time   was   ripe,    God   sent 
Missionary.  His  Son  into  the  world,  the  Supreme 

Missionary.  To  convince  a  doubter  of  the  divine  au- 
thority for  missions,  one  need  go  no  farther  than  to 
point  to  Christ's  earthly  life. 

The  Disciples  J'-^^t  as  God  had  sent  His  Son  into 
Sent  Abroad.  the  world,  so  Christ  sent  abroad  His 
disciples.  Their  appointment  was  made  directly  by 
Him.  The  command  is  positive.  "All  authority  hath 
been  given  unto  me  in  heaven  and  on  earth.  Go  ye 
therefore  and  make  disciples  of  all  nations,  baptizing 
them  into  the  name  of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son 
and  of  the  Holy  Ghost."  "Thus  it  is  written,  and 
thus  it  behooved  Christ  to  suffer.  .  .  .  that  repentance 
and  remission  of  sins  should  be  preached  in  His  name 
among  all  nations  beginning  at  Jerusalem."  "As  my 
Father  hath  sent  me,  even  so  send  I  you."  "Ye  shall 
receive  power,  after  that  the  Holy  Ghost  is  come 
upon  you,  and  ye  shall  be  witnesses  unto  me,  both  in 
Jerusalem  and  all  Judea,  and  in  Samaria  and  unto 
the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth." 

T-u  o  J  r  We  have  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles 
The  Record  of  . 

Their  Mission-  a  record  of  the  work  of  the  first  mis- 
ary  Work.  sionaries  appointed  by  Christ.     It  de- 

scribes the  disciples  gathered  together  waiting  for  the 
promise  of  the  Father.  It  describes  the  pentecostal 
visitation  with  its  mighty  wind,  its  tongues  of  fire,  its 


8  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

Strange  speech,  Parthians  and  Medes  and  Elamites, 
Mesopotamians,  Judeans  and  Cappadocians,  Asians, 
Egyptians,  Cretans  and  Arabians  speaking  each  in 
his  own  tongue  "the  mighty  works  of  God".  It  tells 
the  history  of  the  Church,  of  its  early  work  in  Je- 
rusalem, of  its  miracles  and  persecutions,  of  the  death 
of  its  first  martyr.  It  tells  of  the  missionary  work  of 
Peter  among  the  Jews,  the  beginning  of  work  among 
the  Gentiles.  It  tells  of  the  conversion  of  one  Saul, 
a  Jew,  who  had  been  laying  waste  the  new  Church. 

In  the  crises  of  history,  great  charac- 
Saint  Paul.  ,         ,  .  , 

ters  seem  to  be  almost  a  special  cre- 
ation. Such  a  man  was  Lincoln,  such  a  man 
was  Luther,  such  a  man  was  the  apostle  Paul. 
Paul  was  a  Jew  of  the  straitest  sect  of  the 
Pharisees  who  had  kept  the  most  minute  pro- 
vision of  the  law  and  who  had  felt  that  the  law 
was  unable  to  solve  the  problem  of  sin.  He  was  ac- 
quainted also  with  the  wisdom  of  the  Greeks.  To 
him  it  became  clear  after  his  conversion  that  in  Christ 
lay  the  fulfillment  of  the  Jewish  law  and  the  way  of 
salvation  for  mankind. 

To  those  outside  the  law  Paul  became  the 
first  missionary.  Through  his  teaching  Christianity 
was  made  a  universal  religion,  by  his  personal  work 
he  evangelized  a  large  part  of  Asia  Minor  and  the 
chief  cities  of  Greece.  His  accomplished  task  was  but 
a  small  part  of  that  which  he  planned.  His  long- 
ing eyes  turned  toward  the  West,  toward  the  "ut- 
most ramparts  of  the  world".     When  the  sword  of 


LOUIS   HARMS. 
HERMANNSBURG    PARSONAGE. 


THE   BEGINNINGS  9 

the  executioner  ended  his  life  in  Rome,  only  a  small 
part  of  his  dreams  had  been  realized. 
The  Early  ^^^  ^^^V  ^'^^  apostles  but  the  whole  of 

Church.  the  early  Christian  Church  was  filled 

with  the  missionary  spirit.  To  that  early  period  our 
eyes  turn  with  longing  desire  to  penetrate  farther 
into  the  story  of  devotion,  of  passion  for  the  things 
of  Christ,  of  persecution,  of  martyrdom  and  of  even- 
tual triumph.  To  us  glorious  and  pathetic  relics  re- 
main in  tradition,  in  a  few  written  accounts  and  in 
inscriptions  on  tombs  and  funeral  urns.  In  Thes- 
sonalica  (now  Saloniki),  that  city  in  which  Paul  and 
Barnabas  were  said  to  have  "turned  the  world  upside 
down,"  were  found  two  funeral  urns  of  this  period. 
Upon  one  was  the  inscription  "No  hope" ;  on  the  other, 
"Christ  my  life."  What  a  mighty  hope  had  been  born 
in  the  hearts  of  men ! 

It   is   impossible  to   know   exactly   the 

Its    Extent.  ,  r    i      /"n     •     •       /-^i         i 

size  and  extent  or  the  Christian  Uhurch 

at  any  of  the  early  periods  of  its  history.  It  is  esti- 
mated by  the  conservative  that  at  the  end  of  the  First 
Century  there  were  in  the  Roman  Empire  two  hun- 
dred thousand  Christians,  and  at  the  end  of  the  Second 
perjiaps  eight  millions,  which  was  about  one  fifteenth 
of  the  population.  By  the  time  of  the  Emperor  Con- 
stantine,  Christianity  had  become  so  vast  in  its  ex- 
tent and  so  tremendous  in  influence  that  he  made  it 
in  313  A.D.  the  State  Church  of  the  Empire. 
A   Change  ^^  ^^^^  Study  the  history  of  the  Chris- 

in  Method.  tian  Church  during  the  next  centuries, 

we   observe   a   new  method   of   Christianizing.      The 


10  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

apostles  had  built  up  small  churches,  had  watched  and 
nourished  them,  had  chidden  the  backsliders,  had  per- 
mitted no  sacrifice  of  the  cardinal  Christian  principles. 
Now  there  were  added  to  the  Empire  barbarian  coun- 
tries upon  whose  people  the  Christian  religion  was  im- 
posed, whether  or  not  they  were  truly  converted, 
whether  or  not,  indeed,  they  were  willing  to  receive 
it.  There  were  not  lacking,  of  course,  many  individ- 
ual conversions,  there  were  not  lacking  hundreds  of 
Christians  who  labored  with  apostolic  diligence  and 
devotion  and  who  doubtless  deplored  the  growing  un 
ion  of  their  religion  with  the  corrupt  politics  of  a  great 
empire. 

Early  Among  the  famous  missionaries  of  this 

Missionaries.  period  were  Gregory,  the  Illuminator, 
a  missionary  to  the  Armenians  about  the  year  300; 
Ulfilas,  who  invented  a  Gothic  alphabet  so  that  he 
might  translate  the  Scriptures  into  Gothic;  Chrysos- 
tom,  who  founded  in  Constantinople  a  missionary  in- 
stitution, and  Saint  Patrick,  who  converted  Ireland. 
From  the  secluded  churches  of  Ireland  and  the  Scot- 
tish Highlands  there  went  forth  to  Iceland,  to  the 
Faroe  Islands,  and  far  into  the  barbarian  sections  of 
the  Empire  a  new  band,  Columba,  Aidan,  Columbanus 
and  Trudpert.  From  the  young  English  Church  went 
Wilfrid  to  Friesland,  Willibrord  to  the  neighborhood 
of  Utrecht,  and  Boniface  to  Germany.  Further  to 
the  east  the  Gospel  was  proclaimed  under  fearful  dif- 
ficulties. At  one  time  it  seemed  that  Christianity 
might  become  one  of  the  religions  of  old  China. 


THE  BEGINNINGS  11 

Church  Gradually  the  alliance  of  the  Church 

and  State.  and   State  came  to  its   inevitable  con- 

clusion. The  Church  began  to  share  the  an:ibitions  of 
the  State.  Christianity  armed  itself  with  the  sword 
and  strove  to  wrest  from  the  Moslem  the  sepulcher  of 
the  Prince  of  Peace.  A  measure  of  the  true  spirit  of 
the  Nazarene  remained  in  such  as  Raymond  Lull,  who 
protested  against  extending  God's  kingdom  by  the 
sword  and  testified  to  his  convictions  by  giving  up  his 
life.  The  great  missionary  societies  of  the  Church, 
the  Jesuit,  the  Dominican,  the  Capuchin,  accepted  in 
the  main  the  Church's  theory  of  conquest,  a  theory 
made  enormously  advantageous  by  the  discovery  of 
new  continents.  The  missionary  enterprises  of  Spain 
and  Portugal  were  marked  by  hideous  oppression  of 
those  who  would  not  accept  the  offered  religion. 

Upon  the  ministers  of  the  Church  the  alliance  with 
the  State  wrought  its  evil  effect.  The  ambitions  of 
a  bishop  of  Rome  led  him  in  442  to  ask  the  weak 
Emperor  that  he  be  made  the  head  of  western  Chris- 
tendom. Henceforth  the  See  of  Rome  grew  more 
and  more  powerful.  The  Church  lost  entirely  the 
democratic  quality  of  its  early  life.  Pope  Gregory 
claimed  toward  the  end  of  the  Eleventh  Century  that 
he  had  power  not  only  over  the  souls  of  men  but  over 
all  rulers.  The  lives  of  great  prelates  grew  evil,  the 
administration  of  ecclesiastical  afFairs  venal,  the  pure 
Gospel  was  obscured.  A  mistaken  emphasis  was  put 
upon  good  works  as  a  means  of  winning  that  forgive- 
ness of  sin  which  God  had  promised  for  Christ's  sake. 


12  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

Before  the  missionary  stream  could  flow  for  the  bless- 
ing and  healing  of  mankind,  a  clear  passage  must  be 
opened  to  its  Source. 

Among  the  missionaries  who  had  set 
out  full  of  zeal  from  the  English 
Church  in  the  Eighth  Century  was  Boniface,  a  m.an 
of  extraordinary  energy  and  power.  Among  the  fields 
in  which  he  worked  was  that  of  Thuringia  in  Ger- 
many. Here,  among  the  dark  forests,  encouraged 
and  supported  by  the  Pope  and  by  the  ruler,  Charles 
Martel,  he  preached  the  Gospel,  converting  thousands 
and  binding  them  to  Rome.  With  the  Gospel  he  gave 
them  a  new  sort  of  superstition,  an  idolatrous  rever- 
ence for  Rome  and  a  deep  awe  of  the  sacred  relics 
which  he  brought  with  him.  He  established  monas- 
teries, synods,  schools,  and  required  not  only  faith  but 
knowledge  of  the  forms  of  the  Church,  such  as  the 
Lord's  Prayer  and  the  Creed.  When  an  old  man,  he 
went  to  visit  the  country  of  Friesland  which  had  re- 
jected his  early  preaching  and  there  with  his  com- 
panions was  murdered. 

The  Church  His  Church,  however,  continued, 
of  Germany.  Closely  bound  to  the  great  Roman  See, 
it  reproduced  all  the  evils  of  that  powerful  organiza- 
tion. Here  were  the  great  celibate  orders,  here  col- 
lections of  relics,  here  a  constant  demand  for  money 
to  build  magnificent  churches  and  to  support  an  idle 
and  ignorant  priesthood.  Here,  especially,  was  a  tre- 
mendous traffic  in  indulgences  by  which  in  exchange 
for  money   the   sinner  could   secure   not   only   release 


THE  BEGINNINGS  13 

from  penance  on  earth  and  pain  in  purgatory,  but, 
to  the  minds  of  the  ignorant,  actual  pardon  for  sin. 
The  essential  truths  of  Christ's  teaching  were  forgot- 
ten while  men  busied  themselves  with  a  thousand  non- 
essentials and  found  no  peace  for  their  souls. 

Now,  as  in  other  times  of  dire  need  God  provided 
a  man  should  point  to  the  true  way  of  salvation. 
j^Iartin  In  Germany,   as  well  as  in  all  other 

Luther.  parts  of  the  Church,  there  were  many 

simple,  devout  Christians  whose  superstition  was  un- 
derlaid by  a  deep  and  childlike  faith.  To  two  such 
pious  souls,  Hans  and  Margaret  Luther,  there  was 
born  in  1483,  seven  hundred  years  after  Boniface  had 
died,  a  son,  Martin.  Hans  Luther  was  a  poor  miner 
who  had  moved  before  Martin's  birth  from  Mohra  to 
the  village  of  Eisleben.  For  this  son  Hans  and  Mar- 
garet were  ambitious.  They  wished  him  to  pos- 
sess first  of  all  a  good  character  and  to  that  end 
trained  him  strictly.  His  mother  taught  him  simple 
prayers  and  hymns  and  that  God  for  Christ's  sake 
forgives  sin.  They  wished  in  the  second  place  that 
the  lad  should  rise  above  their  humble  estate  and  for 
that  reason  sent  him  to  school,  first  to  Mansfield  and 
Magdeburg,  then  to  Eisenach. 

University  When  he  was  eighteen  years  old  ]\Iar- 

^^ys.  tin  entered  the  University  of   Erfurt. 

His  father  had  become  more  prosperous  and  continued 
in  his  determination  that  the  boy  should  have  every 
possible  opportunity. 


14  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

Luther  was  popular  among  his  mates.  He  won  his 
bachelor's  then  his  master's  degree  and  began  the  study 
of  the  law  for  which  his  father  intended  him.  Sud- 
denly with  crushing  disappointment  to  that  ambitious 
father  and  to  the  amazed  disapproval  of  his  friends, 
he  abandoned  together  the  study  of  the  law  and  the 
world  itself  and  entered  a  monastery. 

«iifu  ^  n/r  ^  It  had  not  been  his  studies  alone  which 
"What   Must 

I  Do  to  be       had  occupied  the  young  man  during  his 
Saved.  university  course,  but  meditation  upon 

the  needs  of  his  own  despairing  soul.  We  have  every 
evidence  that  he  led  a  pure  and  godly  life,  j'et  the 
weight  of  that  sin  to  which  all  mankind  is  heir  lay 
heavily  upon  him.  To  a  man  of  his  time  there  was  but 
one  way  of  escape — the  monastery,  in  which  he  might 
work  out  his  salvation.  Vowed  to  celibacy,  to  pov- 
erty, to  obedience,  devoting  himself  to  prayer  and  fast- 
ing, he  might  hope  to  be  saved. 

If  "Brother  Augustine,"  as  he  was  called,  had  any 
fault  as  a  monk,  he  erred  upon  the  side  of  too  strict 
obedience.  He  followed  all  the  rules  of  the  order,  he 
fasted,  he  scourged  himself  cruelly.  But  still  he  found 
no  peace.  God  appeared  to  him  an  implacable  judge, 
whose  laws  it  was  impossible  to  keep.  He  wearied  his 
fellow-priests  with  confessions  and  inquiries,  but  his 
heart  was  not  at  rest. 

Finally,  however,  he  found  an  answer 

The   Answer.         ,      ,  .  .  -r.       i      l       i      i    i        c 

to  his  question,     rartly  by  the  help  or 

his  superiors,  chiefly  by  the  aid  of  the  Scriptures,  which, 

contrary  to  the  custom  of  the  time,  he  studied  diligent- 


THE   BEGINNINGS  15 

ly,  he  saw  a  new  light.  God  was  a  kind  Father  who 
required  only  that  his  children  should  throw  them- 
selves in  faith  upon  His  grace,  accepting  Christ's  sac- 
rifice for  them.  Good  works  were  simply  the  natural 
expression  of  a  soul  already  reconciled  with  God  and 
could  have  in  themselves  no  merit.  If  one  simply 
believed,  one  was  justified  by  his  faith.  That  this 
doctrine  was  not  that  of  the  Church,  Martin  did 
not  realize. 

But  he  was  soon  to  learn  that  his  discovery  was  not 
acceptable  to  his  superiors.  There  came  into  the  neigh- 
borhood a  monk,  Tetzel  by  name,  selling  those  indul- 
gences which  had  become  a  menace  to  spiritual  life. 
Against  him  and  his  traffic  Luther  protested,  first  in 
a  sermon  and  then  in  a  series  of  ninetj^-five  theses 
which  he  nailed  to  the  door  of  the  Castle  Church. 
A  New  The  sale  of  indulgences  began  prompt- 

Evangel,  ly  to  decline,  and  the  money,  intended 

partly  for  the  building  of  St.  Peter's  Church  at  Rome, 
ceased  to  flow  into  the  treasury.  The  local  clergy 
took  alarm,  the  alarm  reached  to  Rome.  Threatened, 
cajoled,  greatly  disturbed,  but  steadfast,  Luther  clung 
to  his  conviction.  "The  Christian  man  who  has  true 
repentance  has  already  received  pardon  from  God  al- 
together apart  from  an  indulgence  and  does  not  need 
one;  Christ  demands  true  repentance  from  every  one," 
said  Luther.  At  once  came  a  stern  reply.  It  was  the 
Pope  and  not  Luther  who  had  the  right  to  decide 
this  and  all  other  questions.  Thus  reproved,  Luther 
began  to  investigate  the  claims  of  the  Pope  upon  the 


16  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

lives  and  fortunes  of  men.  Excommunicated,  threat- 
ened, with  the  fate  of  the  martyr  Huss  in  store  for 
him,  but  gathering  courage  each  dajs  he  persisted 
until  he  had  separated  essentials  from  non-essentials 
and,  thrusting  aside  the  judgments  and  traditions  of 
men,  had  founded  his  theology  upon  the  Word  of  God. 
Tearing  out  the  weeds  of  false  doctrine  and  false  prac- 
tice, he  cleared  the  stream  of  the  Gospel  to  its  clear 
and  living  Spring. 

The   Bible  Luther    not    only    opened    the    stream, 

Translated.  but  provided  for  its  continued  freedom. 

To  his  German  people  he  gave  their  Bible.  His  was 
not  the  first  German  translation,  but  it  was  the  first 
which  was  at  once  readable  and  true  to  the  original. 
With  the  most  painstaking  care  and  with  the  aid  of 
his  friends,  Luther  prepared  his  version,  drawn  from 
the  original  languages,  true  to  the  German  idiom,  a 
joy  to  laity  and  scholars  alike. 

Luther  and  The  interest  of  Luther  in  missions  has 

Missions.  been  the  subject  of  much  unnecessary 

discussion.  There  are  fervent  admirers  who  claim 
for  him  a  missionary  enthusiasm  which  he  did  not 
possess.  There  are  others  who  deny  for  him  all  in- 
terest in  this  vital  question.  The  truth  lies  midway. 
Missionary  enterprise  was  not  one  of  the  first  ac- 
tivities of  the  new  Church,  nor  was  it  to  be  expected 
that  it  should  be.  The  turmoil  and  difficulties  con- 
nected with  the  establishment  of  the  evangelical  re- 
ligion occupied  fully  the  minds  of  the  reformers.  Ger- 
many was  practically  an  inland  nation  and  a  divided 


THE   BEGINNINGS  17 

nation.  It  had  no  ships,  no  foreign  possessions, 
no  communication  with  the  heathen  world.  There 
were  not  for  the  early  Protestants  as  for  the  early 
Christians  great  Roman  roads  leading  the  imagination 
afar,  there  were  no  large  cities  where  men  of  many 
nations  touched  elbows.  The  newly  discovered  lands 
were  the  possession  of  Catholic  countries  in  whose  do- 
main the  new  Gospel,  which  was  really  the  old  Gos- 
pel, would  have  had  no  hearing. 

Not  only  Luther  but  other  reformers  in  other  lands 
were  concerned  chiefly  with  the  heathenized  Church 
about  them.  For  it  they  labored  and  prayed.  The 
business  of  laying  a  sound  foundation  absorbed  them. 
That  the  foundation  was  well  laid,  the  missions  of 
later  centuries  will  show.  In  the  words  of  Doctor 
Gustav  Warneck:  "The  Reformation  not  only  re- 
stored the  true  substance  of  missionary  preaching  by 
its  earnest  proclamation  of  the  Gospel,  but  also  brought 
back  the  ivhole  ivork  of  missions  to  Apostolic  lines." 
•phe  There  is  always  a  difference  of  opin- 

Beginnings.  Jon   about   the  actual   beginnings  of  a 

great  work.  Modern  missions  ofifer  no  exception  to 
this  rule.  General  historians  are  unwilling  to  find  any 
indication  that  even  in  the  Seventeenth  Century  the 
Church  of  the  Reformation  felt  an  obligation  to 
heathen  nations.  Lutheran  historians,  searching  the 
matter  more  thoroughly  and  with  a  less  prejudiced 
spirit,  have  discovered  various  individuals  to  whom 
missions  were  a  matter  of  deep  concern. 


18  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

In  Europe  -^^    early    as    1557,     Primus     Truber 

and  Asia.  translated    into  the    language  of    the 

Croats  and  Wends  to  the  east  of  Germany  the  Gos- 
pel, Luther's  Catechism  and  a  book  of  spiritual  songs. 
In  1559,  Gustavus  Vasa,  King  of  Sweden,  and  later 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  endeavored  to  bring  irito  the  Lu- 
theran Church  the  Lapps,  who,  though  nominally 
Roman  Catholic,  had  been  in  reality  heathen,  but  the 
effort  was  not  successful.  Denmark,  which  had  ac- 
quired possessions  in  India,  provided  for  a  minister  to 
the  colony,  whose  chief  concern  should  be  the  spir- 
itual needs  of  the  natives.  The  creditable  undertak- 
ing was  brought  to  naught  by  the  wickedness  of  the 
appointed  ministers.  In  1658,  Eric  Bredal,  a  Nor- 
wegian bishop  began  preaching  to  the  Lapps.  Some 
of  his  assistants  were  killed ;  he  died  and  his  work 
came  to  no  earthly  fruitage.  But  the  missionary  spirit 
was  none  the  less  clearly  exhibited. 

In     1634    Peter    Heiling    of    Liibeck 
In  Africa.  .  ,  a  1        •    • 

journeyed  to  Abyssmia  to  try  to  rouse 

once  more  the  churches  of  the   East  whose  spiritual 
life  had  almost  ceased.     There,  after  translating  the 
New  Testament  into  Amharic,  he  died  a  martyr. 
In  North  I"  1 638  the  Swedes  established  "New 

America.  Sweden"  on  the  banks  of  the  Delaware 

River  in  America.  That  there  existed  in  their  minds 
an  interest  in  the  spiritual  welfare  of  the  Indians  sur- 
rounding them  is  recorded  in  one  of  the  resolutions 
for  the  government  of  the  colony.     "The  wild  nations 


THE  BEGINNINGS  19 

bordering  upon  all  other  sides,  the  Governor  shall  un- 
derstand how  to  treat  with  all  humanity  and  respect, 
that  no  violence  or  wrong  be  done  to  them.  .  .  .  but  he 
shall  rather,  at  every  opportunity  exert  himself  that 
the  same  wild  people  may  gradually  be  instructed  in 
the  truths  and  worship  of  the  Christian  religion,  and 
in  other  ways  be  brought  to  civilization  and  good 
government,  and  in  this  manner  properly  guided."' 
Among  the  Swedish  Lutheran  pastors  who  obeyed  this 
injunction  was  John  Campanius  who  translated  in 
1648  Luther's  Small  Catechism  into  the  language  of  the 
Virginia  Indians,  a  work  which  antedated  by  thirteen 
years  the  publication  of  John  Eliot's  translation  of 
the  New  Testament  for  the  Indians  of  Massachusetts. 
The  work  among  the  Indians  lasted  for  over  a  hun- 
dred years. 
In  South  The  most  important  name  of  the  Sev- 

America.  enteenth  Century  in  our  study  of  Lu- 

Justinian  von  ...  .    , 

Welz.  theran   missions   is    that   of    Justinian 

von  Welz,  a  German  noblemen.  To  him  there  came 
clearly  the  true  vision  of  the  indissoluble  relation  of 
living  Christianity  and  Christian  missions.  In  1664 
he  issued  two  pamphlets,  one  bearing  the  title,  "An 
invitation  for  a  society  of  Jesus  to  promote  Christianity 
and  the  conversion  of  heathendom'^  the  other  "A 
Christian  and  true-hearted  exhortation  to  all  right- 
believing  Christians  of  the  Augsburg  Confession  re- 
specting a  special  association  by  means  of  which,  with 
God's  help,  our  evangelical  religion  might  be  ex- 
tended"   In  the  latter  pamphlet  there  were  such  ques 


20  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

tions  as  these:  "Is  it  right  that  we  evangelical  Chris- 
tians hold  the  Gospel  for  ourselves  alone?"  "Is  it 
right  that  in  all  places  we  have  so  many  theological 
students,  and  do  not  induce  them  to  labor  elsewhere 
in  the  garden  of  the  Lord?"  "Is  it  right  that  we  evan- 
gelical Christians  expend  so  much  on  all  sorts  of  dress, 
delicacies  in  eating  and  drinking,  etc.,  but  have  hith- 
erto thought  of  no  means  for  the  spread  of  the  Gos- 
pel?" 

His  Appeal  When   this   appeal   w^as   met   with   op- 

Ridiculed,  position  and  ridicule,  von  Welz  issued 

a  still  stronger  manifesto.  He  called  upon  the  court 
preachers,  the  learned  professors  and  others  in  author- 
ity to  establish  a  missionary  school  where  oriental  lan- 
guages, the  lives  of  the  early  missionaries,  geography 
and  kindred  missionary  subjects  might  be  studied. 
Alas!  von  Welz  was  considered  now  more  fanatical 
and  insane  than  before.  When  he  suggested  the  send- 
ing out  of  artisans  and  laymen  to  tell  the  Gospel  story, 
since  the  learned  and  influential  leaders  would  not  go, 
he  was  thought  to  be  quite  mad. 

Forsaking  his  noble  rank,  this  eager 
A.    I\/T  fl  rtv  r 

soul  turned  away  from  his  own  coun- 
try to  Holland,  where  he  found  a  minister  to  ordain 
him  as  "an  apostle  to  the  Gentiles".  Arranging  his  af- 
fairs so  that  all  his  wealth  might  be  applied  to  his 
great  endevaor,  he  set  sail  as  a  missionary  to  Dutch 
Guiana  in  South  America.  There  in  a  few  months 
he  found  a  lonely  grave. 


THE  BEGINNINGS  21 

In  Justinian  von  Welz  the  Church  of 
the  Reformation  possesses  one  of  her 
worthiest  and  least  known  heroes.  It  was  not  until 
1786,  more  than  a  century  later,  that  the  Baptist  Wil- 
liam Carey,  considered  the  first  standard  bearer  of 
modern  missions,  lifted  up  his  admonishing  voice.  Of 
von  Welz,  Doctor  Warneck,  the  greatest  of  all  mis- 
sionary historians,  speaks  thus:  "The  indubitable  sin- 
cerity of  his  purposes,  the  noble  enthusiasm  of  his 
heart,  the  sacrifice  of  his  position,  his  fortune,  his  life 
for  the  yet  unrecognized  duty  of  the  Church  to  mis- 
sions, insure  for  him  an  abiding  place  of  honor  in  mis- 
sionary history."  To  him  another  German  mission- 
ary historian  pa}'s  this  tribute:  "Sometimes  in  a  mild 
December  a  snow  drop  lifts  its  head,  yet  is  spring  far 
away.  Frost  and  snow  will  hold  field  and  garden  in 
chains  for  many  months.  But  have  patience.  Only  a 
little  while  and  Spring  will  be  here!" 
The  Spring  ^o"  Welz's  labors  and  prayers  were 
at  Hand.  to  bear  fruit.     His  teaching  sank  into 

the  hearts  of  some  of  those  who  read.  In  a  period  of 
dreary  rationalism  which  followed  there  began  to 
spring  up  the  seeds  which  he  had  sowed.  Missions 
became  more  and  more  a  subject  of  discussion  among 
learned  men.  Among  those  who  gave  the  theories  of 
von  Welz  his  earnest  attention  was  the  German  scien- 
tist Leibnitz  who  urged  the  sending  of  missionaries  to 
China  through  Russia,  When  men  began  not  onlv 
to  think  and  to  discuss  but  to  pray,  the  Spring  was 
really  at  hand. 


22  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

To  two  Lutherans  above  all  other  men 
Philip    Spener.       ,  ,  ,  i      •  i  ^ 

the  world  owes  the  impulse  to  modern 

Protestant  missions.  If  Philip  Jacob  Spener  and  Au- 
gust Herman  Francke  had  not  lived,  the  preaching  of 
the  pure  Gospel  to  the  heathen,  already  long  delayed, 
would  have  had  a  still  later  Spring. 

Philip  Spener  was  born  in  1635  and  died  in  1705. 
He  was  a  man  of  deep  piety  and  great  learning.  Oc- 
cupying many  important  positions,  among  them  that  of 
court  preacher  at  Dresden,  he  preached  and  taught 
constantly  that  pure  living  must  be  added  to  pure  doc- 
trine, urging  that  the  "rigid  and  externalized"  or- 
thodoxy of  the  Church  be  transmuted  into  practical 
piety  which  should  include  Bible  study  and  all  sorts 
of  Christian  work.  He  held  in  his  own  house  meet- 
ings for  the  study  of  the  Bible  and  the  exchanging  of 
personal  religious  experiences.  From  the  name  of 
these  meetings,  collegia  pietatis,  the  name  of  Pietists 
was  given  in  ridicule  to  him  and  his  followers. 

Among  the  practical  manifestations  of  a  true  Chris- 
tion  spirit  which  Spener  urged  was  the  sending  of  mis- 
sionaries to  the  heathen.  On  the  Feast  of  the  Ascen- 
sion he  preached  as  follows: 

"We  are  thus  reminded  that  although  every  preacher 
is  not  bound  to  go  everywhere  and  preach,  since  God 
has  knit  each  of  us  to  his  congregation,  yet  the  ob- 
ligation rests  on  the  whole  Church  to  have  care  as 
to  how  the  Gospel  shall  be  preached  in  the  whole 
world,  and  that  to  this  end  no  diligence,  labor,  or 
cost  be  spared  in  behalf  of  the  poor  heathen  and  un- 


THE   BEGINNINGS  23 

believers.  That  almost  no  thought  has  been  given  to 
this,  and  that  great  potentates,  as  the  earthly  heads 
of  the  Church,  do  so  very  little  therein,  is  not  to  be 
excused,  but  is  evidence  how  little  the  honor  of  Christ 
and  of  humanity  concerns  us;  yea,  I  fear  that  in  that 
day  unbelievers  will  cry  for  vengeance  upon  Chris- 
tians who  have  been  so  utterly  without  care  for  their 
salvation." 

Most  famous  among  the  followers  and 
A.    H.    Francke.       ,     .  ^    „  .  ^^ 

admirers  or  bpener  v/as  August  Her- 
man Francke  J  who  was  born  in  1663  and  died  in  1727. 
He  showed  as  a  child  extraordinary  powers  of  mind, 
being  prepared  to  enter  the  university  at  the  age  of 
fourteen.  In  1685  he  graduated  from  the  University 
of  Leipsic  after  having  studied  there  and  at  Erfurt 
and  Kiel.  In  1688  he  spent  two  months  with  Spener 
at  Dresden  and  became  deeply  impressed  with  pietis- 
tic  theories.  In  1691  he  was  appointed  professor  of 
Greek  and  Oriental  languages  in  the  University  of 
Halle,  then  recently  founded.  Here  he  became  pas- 
tor of  a  church  in  a  neighboring  village,  an  under- 
taking which  w^as  to  have  world-wide  importance. 

The  villagers  in  this  town  of  Glaucha  were  de- 
graded, poor,  untaught.  Moved  by  their  need,  Francke 
opened  a  school  for  the  children  in  one  room.  He 
had  little  money  but  he  trusted  God.  In  a  short  while 
it  was  necessary  to  add  another  room,  then  two.  He 
next  established  a  home  for  orphans,  then  he  added 
homes   for   the   destitute   and    fallen.     As   fast   as  his 


24  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

enterprises  increased,  so  rapidly  came  the  necessary 
support. 

The  School  ^^  ^^  "°^  possible  to  tell  here  the  amaz- 

at   Halle.  fng  history     of  the   Halle  institutions 

which  sheltered  even  before  the  death  of  Francke  more 
than  a  thousand  souls,  much  less  of  the  enormous  In- 
ner Mission  institutions  in  other  parts  of  Germany 
which  had  here  their  inspiration.  That  activity  of 
this  remarkable  man  with  which  we  are  chiefly  con- 
cerned is  his  missionary  labors.  In  the  words  of  Doc- 
tor Warneck:  "He  knew  himself  to  be  a  debtor  to 
both,  Christians  and  non-Christians.  In  him  there  i' 
personified  that  connection  of  rescue  work  at  home 
with  missions  to  the  heathen — a  type  of  the  fact  that 
they  who  do  the  one  do  not  leave  the  other  undone. 
Home  and  foreign  missions  have  from  the  beginning 
been  sisters  who  work  reciprocally  into  each  other's 
hands." 

Francke's  institution  became  a  training  school  for 
Christian  workers.  There  was  no  specific  instruction 
for  such  undertakings,  but  "in  those  that  came  in  near 
contact  with  him  he  stirred  a  spirit  of  absolute  de- 
votion to  divine  service,  such  as  he  himself  possessed 
in  highest  measure,  and  which  made  them  ready  to  go 
wherever  there  was  need  of  them."  There  came  into 
the  school  later,  as  a  lad,  the  Moravian  Zinzendorf, 
afterwards  a  zealous  missionary,  who  describes  thus  the 
eiifect  of  the  surroundings  upon  him:  "The  daily 
opportunity  in  Professor  Francke's  house  of  hearing 
edifying  tidings  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  of  speak- 


-^     L'!^ 


kj 


JOHN    EVANGELIST    GOSSNER. 
MENS    BATHING    GHAT    AT    PURULIA. 


THE   BEGINNINGS  25 

ing  with  witnesses  from  all  lands,  of  making  acquain- 
tance with  missionaries,  of  seeing  men  who  had  been 
banished  and  imprisoned,  as  also  the  institutions  then 
in  their  bloom,  and  the  cheerfulness  of  the  pious  man 

himself   in   the   work   of   the    Lord mightily 

strengthened  within  me  zeal  for  the  things  of  the 
Lord." 

From  Halle  there  went  forth  during  the  following 
century  about  sixty  missionaries,  among  them  Ziegen- 
balg,  Fabricius,  Jaenicke,  Gericke  and  Schwartz,  whose 
careers  we  shall  study.  Here  also  was  trained  Muh- 
lenberg, the  patriarch  of  the  Lutheran  Church  in 
America,  who  intended  first  to  go  as  a  missionary  to 
India.  Here  were  published  in  1710  the  earliest  mis- 
sionary reports  in  a  little  periodical  which  was  con- 
tinued under  different  titles  until  1880,  one  hundred 
and  seventy  years.  Among  those  for  whom  the  heart 
of  Francke  yearned  were  the  Jews,  in  whose  interest 
he  founded  the  Institua  Judiaca.  From  Halle  there 
spread  an  influence  not  only  through  Germany  but 
through  the  world  which  is  difficult  to  estimate  but 
almost  impossible  to  exaggerate.  By  no  means  the 
least  of  the  missionary  activities  which  had  there  their 
inspiration  was  that  of  the  Moravian  Church,  the 
most  ardent  in  missionary  work  of  all  Churches. 

The  missionary  influence  did  not  have  any  means 
free  course.  The  opposition  shown  to  the  theories  of 
Justinian  von  Welz  continued.  Francke  was  consid- 
ered no  less  of  a  fanatic.  This  contrary  spirit  may 
be  shown  by  the  expression  of  a  deeply  pious  clergy- 


26  THE  STORY  OP  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

man  who  concluded    an    Ascension   sermon   with    the 
following  couplet: 

"  'Go  into  all  the  world,'  the  Lord  of  old  did  say; 
But  now  'Where  God  has  placed  thee,   there  He 
would  have  thee  stay.'  " 

_,,      p.  But   even    in    poetic    form    missionary 

Missionary  activity   was   soon   to   find   an   expres- 

"y'""'  sion.    In  Halle  a  Lutheran  Karl  Hein- 

rich  von  Bogatsky  wrote  in  1750  the  first  Protestant 
missionary  hymn. 

"Awake,  Thou  Spirit,  who  didst  fire 
The  watchmen  of  the  Church's  youth. 

Who  faced  the  foe's  envenomed  ire, 

Who  witnessed  day  and  night  Thy  truth, 

Whose  voices  loud  are  ringing  still. 
And  bringing  hosts  to  know  Thy  will. 

"And  let  Thy  Word  have  speedy  course. 
Through  every  land  be  glorified, 
Till  all  the  heathen  know  its  force. 

And  fill  Thy  churches  far  and  wide; 
Wake  Israel  from  her  sleep,  O  Lord, 

And  spread  the  conquests  of  Thy  Word!"' 

Before  this  time,  however,  the  first  call  for  mis- 
sionary workers  had  come  to  Halle  from  outside  Ger- 
many. 


CHAPTER  II. 

Pioneers  and  Methods 

Pioneers. 

Bart/iolome'w  Ziegenbalg 
Henry  Pliitschau 
John  Ernst  Griindler 
Benjamin  Schultze 
John    Philip    Fabricius 
Christian  William  Gericke 
Christian   Frederick  Schivartz 
Karl   Ewald  Rhenius 
Thomas  von  Westen 
Per    Fjellstrom 
Hans  Egede 
John  Jaenicke 

Methods. 

German   Societies 

The  Basel    Society 

The  Berlin    Society 

The    Rhenish    Society 

The  North  German  or  Bremen  Society 

The  Leipsic  Society 

The   Hermannsburg   Society 

The   Gossner   Society 

The  Breklum  or  Schleswig-Holstein  Society 

The  Neukirchen  Society 

The    Neuendettelsau    Society 

The   Hanover   Society 

The  Bielefeld  Society 

Scandinavian    Societies 

The    Danish    Missionary    Society 

The  Norwegian  Missionary  Society 

The    Norwegian    Church    Mission    (Schreuder) 

The  Norwegian  Lutheran  China  Mission 

The   Swedish    National    Society 

The   Swedish   Church   Mission 

The  Swedish  Mission  in  China 

The   Swedish   Mongol   Mission 

The   Jerusalem    Association 

The    Home   Mission    to   the    Santals 


Finnish,    Polish    and   other   societies. 

American    Societies 

Nine   Norwegian  Societies 
General    Synod 
General    Council 
United    Synod    South 
Synodical    Conference 
Joint   Ohio    Synod 
Danish   Society 
Iowa   Synod 


Chapter  II. 

PIONEERS  AND  METHODS 

Pioneers. 

A   Danish  ^"   1 5 26,  nine  years  after  Luther  had 

Colony.  nailed  his  theses  to  the  church  door  at 

Wittenberg,  the  King  of  Denmark  accepted  the  Evan- 
gelical faith.  Subsequently  the  Lutheran  Church  was 
made  the  State  Church.  About  a  hundred  years  later 
Denmark  acquired  by  purchase  an  Indian  fishing  vil- 
lage, Tranquebar,  on  the  east  coast  of  southern  India. 
There  a  Danish  colony  was  established,  there  a  Lu- 
theran church  called  Zion  Church  was  built,  and  thither 
two  preachers  were  sent  to  minister  to  the  Danes. 
Eighty  5^ears  later  the  heart  of  a  pious  King,  Fred- 
erick IV,  became  concerned  for  the  spiritual  welfare 
of  the  heathen  in  this  colony.  His  court  chaplain, 
Doctor  Liitken,  who  was  also  deeply  interested,  set 
about  securing  men  who  would  be  willing  to  under- 
take the  work.  Failing  to  meet  with  a  response  in 
Denmark,  he  applied  to  friends  in  Berlin.  They  rec- 
ommended a  young  German  Bartholomew  Ziegenbalg. 

The  Son  of  a  Young  Ziegenbalg  had  been  influenced, 
Pious  Mother,  as  most  candidates  for  the  ministry  are 
influenced,  by  a  pious  mother.     Both  his  mother  and 


30  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

father  had  died  so  early  that  he  could  remember  very 
little  about  them.  One  recollection,  however,  was 
clear  in  his  mind.  Dying,  his  mother  had  called  her 
children  to  her  bedside  and  had  commended  to  them 
her  Bible,  with  the  words:  "Dear  children,  I  am 
leaving  to  you  a  treasure,  a  very  great  treasure."  Ear- 
nest and  pious,  anxious  for  communion  with  God, 
the  young  man,  who  was  brought  up  by  a  sister,  pre- 
pared himself  for  the  ministry.  He  studied  at  Ber- 
lin and  afterwards  at  Halle.  There  his  poor  health 
was  a  cause  of  deep  discouragement,  but  Francke 
reminded  him  that  though  he  might  not  be  able  to 
work  in  Germany  he  might  seek  a  field  in  some  for- 
eign country  with  a  more  equable  climate. 
Called  to  the  When  his  health  failed,  Ziegenbalg  left 
Mission  Field.  Halle  and  took  up  the  work  of  a  pri- 
vate tutor.  He  continued  his  devotional  studies,  how- 
ever, and  held  such  meetings  as  Spener  had  begun. 
He  formed  a  friendship  at  this  time  with  Henry  Pliit- 
schau,  another  Halle  student.  Together  the  two  cove- 
nanted "never  to  seek  anything  but  the  glory  of  God, 
the  spread  of  His  kingdom  and  the  salvation  of  man- 
kind, and  constantly  to  strive  after  personal  holiness, 
no  matter  where  they  might  be  or  what  crosses  they 
might  have  to  bear."  In  1705,  Ziegenbalg  accepted 
a  call  to  a  congregation  near  Berlin.  In  was  here 
that  he  was  found  by  the  inquiry  of  the  Danish  court 
chaplain  Liitken.  He  accepted  at  once,  declaring 
that  if  his  going  brought  about  the  conversion  of  but 
one  heathen  he  would  consider  it  worth  while.     His 


PIONEERS  AND   METHODS  31 

friend  Pliitschau  was  anxious  to  go  also,  and,  or- 
dained by  the  Danish  Church,  the  two  sailed  from 
Copenhagen  on  the  ship  "Sophia  Hedwig"  Novem- 
ber   29,    1705,    for   Tranquebar. 

A  Long  '^^^  journey  round  the  Cape  of  Good 

Journey.  Hope  consumed  seven  months,  during 

which  time  each  of  the  young  missionaries  wrote  a 
book.  On  July  9,  1706,  they  arrived  at  their  desti- 
nation. There,  owing  to  a  difficulty  with  the  captain 
who  had  resented  their  admonitions,  they  could  not 
land  for  two  days.  It  was  well  that  they  did  not 
know  that  he  had  been  instructed  by  the  trading  com- 
pany under  which  he  sailed  to  hinder  their  work  in 
all  possible  ways.  Unwillingly  received  by  the  Dan- 
ish governor,  they  settled  in  a  little  house  near  the 
city  wall. 

Beside  the  Danish  of  the  traders,  two  languages 
were  spoken  in  Tranquebar:  the  Portugese  of  the 
first  foreign  settlers  and  the  native  Tamil  language. 
Leaving  the  easier  task  to  his  companion  who  w^as  the 
older,  Ziegenbalg  set  to  work  to  learn  the  native 
tongue.  His  progress  was  rapid ;  in  a  year  he  had 
completed  a  translation  of  the  Catechism  and  m  a 
few  months  over  a  year  had  preached  his  first  ser- 
mon.    By  this  time  he  had  baptized   fourteen  souls. 

The  record  of  his  busy  days  seems  al- 
Busy  Days.  .     •  j-ui  u  u 

most    mcredible    when    we    remember 

that  he  was  a  man  of  delicate  health. 

"After  morning  prayers  I  begin  my  work.     From 

six  to  seven  I  explain  Luther's  Catechism  to  the  peo- 


32  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

pie  in  Tamil.  From  seven  to  eight  I  review  the 
Tamil  words  and  phrases  which  I  have  learned.  From 
eight  to  twelve  I  read  nothing  but  Tamil  books,  new 
to  me,  under  the  guidance  of  a  teacher  who  must 
explain  things  to  me  with  a  writer  present,  who  writes 
down  all  words  and  phrases  which  I  have  not  had 
before.  From  twelve  to  one  I  eat,  and  have  the  Bible 
read  to  me  while  doing  so.  From  one  till  two  1  rest 
for  the  heat  is  very  oppressive  then.  From  two  to 
three  I  have  a  catechisation  in  my  house.  From  three 
to  five  I  again  read  Tamil  books.  From  five  to  six 
we  have  our  prayer-meeting.  From  six  to  seven  we 
have  a  conference  together  about  the  day's  happen- 
ings. From  seven  to  eight  I  have  a  Tamil  writer 
read  to  me,  as  I  dare  not  read  much  by  lamplight. 
From  eight  to  nine  I  eat,  and  while  doing  so  have  the 
Bible  read  to  me.  After  that  I  examine  the  children 
and  converse  with  them." 

When  the  two  missionaries  felt  that  it  was  neces- 
sary to  build  a  church,  each  gave  for  that  purpose 
half  of  the  two  hundred  dollars  which  was  his  salary. 
The  church  was  dedicated  on  August  4,  1707,  and 
by  the  end  of  the  year  it  had  thirty-five  members. 
Now  Ziegenbalg  began  to  work  in  the  villages  of  the 
Danish  possessions  outside  Tranquebar  and  established 
a  school  for  the  education  of  Christian  children  in 
the  city. 

The   work   was  not   without   its   hard 

ar  y     na  s.        i^[^\s._     When   the  first  financial  help 
arrived,  two  years  after  the  missionaries  had  landed, 


STALL     HIGH     SCHOOL     FOR     GIRLS,      GUNTUR,     INDIA. 
FACULTY    OF    WATTS    MEMORIAL    COLLEGE    FOR    MEN,    GUNTUR. 


PIONEERS  AND  METHODS  33 

the  drunken  captain  upset  in  the  harbor  the  chest  of 
treasure  and  it  was  lost.  The  work  of  the  mission- 
aries was  opposed  by  the  Danish  chaplains  and  by  the 
Roman  Catholics.  On  account  of  his  defense  of  a 
poor  widow  who  had  been  cheated,  Ziegenbalg  was 
cast  into  prison  for  four  months. 

That  the  faith  of  these  pioneers  was  unfailing  may 
be  shown  by  a  prayer,  written  by  one  of  them  on  the 
fly  leaf  of  a  mission  church-book  in  1707. 

"O  Thou  exalted  and  majestic  Savior,  Lord  Jesus 
Christ !  Thou  Redeemer  of  the  whole  human  race ! 
Thou  who  through  Thy  holy  apostles  hast  everywhere, 
throughout  the  whole  world,  gathered  a  holy  congre- 
gation out  of  all  peoples  for  Thy  possession,  and  hast 
defended  and  maintained  the  same  even  until  now 
against  all  the  might  of  hell,  and  moreover  assurest 
Thy  servants  that  Thou  wilt  uphold  them  even  to 
the  end  of  the  world,  and  in  the  very  last  times  wilt 
multiply  them  by  calling  many  of  the  heathen  to 
the  faith !  For  such  goodness  may  Thy  name  be  eter- 
nally praised,  especially  also  because  Thou,  through 
Thy  unworthy  servants  in  this  place,  dost  communicate 
to  Thy  Holy  Word  among  the  heathen  Thy  blessing, 
and  hast  begun  to  deliver  some  souls  out  of  destruc- 
tive blindness,  and  to  incorporate  them  with  the  com- 
munion of  Thy  holy  Church.  Behold,  it  is  Thy  Word ; 
do  Thou  support  it  with  divine  power,  so  that  by 
Thy  power  many  thousand  souls  may  be  born  to  Thee 
in  these  mission  stations,  which  bear  the  names  of  Je- 
rusalem and   Bethlehem,  souls  which  afterwards  may 


34  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

be  admitted  out  of  this  earthly  Jerusalem   into  Thy 
heavenly  Jerusalem  with  everlasting  and  exultant  joy. 
Do  this,  O  Jesus,  for  the  sake  of  Thy  gracious  prom- 
ise and  Thy  holy  merit.     Amen." 
Literary  Ziegenbalg  prepared   an  order  of  ser- 

Work.  vice  and  a  hymnal  and  translated  the 

New  Testament  into  Tamil — the  first  translation  of 
the  New  Testament  into  an  East  Indian  tongue.  An 
English  missionary  society,  hearing  of  his  labors,  sent 
him  a  printing  press.  By  17 12  he  had  composed  or 
had  translated  thirty-eight  books  or  pamphlets.  Among 
his  original  works  was  an  account  of  the  native  re- 
ligions. The  value  of  this  treatise  has  become  more 
appreciated  as  men  have  realized  the  importance  of  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  those  religious  principles  which 
unchristianized  peoples  already  possess.  To  such  knowl- 
edge was  due  much  of  Saint  Paul's  success  among  the 
Greeks. 

Ziegenbalg  travelled  as  far  as  Madras. 

On  this  journey  he  talked  with  native 
rulers  and  British  governors  and  preached  to  all  who 
would  hear  about  the  only  true  God. 
Reinforce-  ^"    ^709  three  missionaries  were  sent 

'"ents.  to  his  aid.     Of  the  three  John  Ernst 

Grilndler  proved  most  able.  When  in  1 7 1 1  it  seemed 
best  for  one  of  the  missionaries  to  return  to  Europe 
to  present  the  needs  of  the  mission,  Pliitschau  was 
selected  to  go.  There  he  accepted  a  pastorate.  The 
testimony  of  Ziegenbalg  to  his  faithful  work  accom- 
panied  him. 


PIONEERS  AND  METHODS  35 

In  1 7 14  Ziegenbalg  visited  Denmark,  leaving  the 
mission  in  charge  of  Griindler.  Upon  his  return  in 
1 716  he  brought  with  him  a  plan  for  the  regular  gov- 
ernment of  the  mission,  the  assurance  of  ample  finan- 
cial support  and  a  helpmate,  Maria  Dorothea  Saltz- 
mann,  who  was  the  first  woman  ever  sent  to  a  for- 
eign field. 

The  New  Jeru-  I"  February  171 7,  Ziegenbalg  had  the 
salem  Church,  satisfaction  of  dedicating  a  large  native 
church,  the  New  Jerusalem  Church,  which  is  used  to 
this  day.  He  preached  the  sermon  and  the  newly 
appointed  governor  laid  the  corner  stone.  He  con- 
tinued to  establish  village  schools,  he  opened  a  semi- 
nary for  the  training  of  native  preachers  and  he  pro- 
vided work  by  which  the  poorest  of  his  converts  could 
earn  a  living.  Except  for  medical  work  his  mission 
settlement  included  all  the  activities  of  the  most  com- 
plete missionary  enterprises  at  the  present  time. 

For  two  more  years  Ziegenbalg  labored,  growing 
meanwhile  aware  that  his  life  was  drawing  to  a  close. 
The  record  of  his  service  leads  us  to  expect  that  when 
his  death  took  place  in  February  17 19  we  should  find 
him  an  old  man.  It  is  with  a  shock  that  we  realize 
that  he  was  only  thirty-six.  He  was  buried  in  the 
New  Jerusalem  Church. 

A  Crowded  The   extraordinary   accomplishment  of 

Life.  Ziegenbalg    has    been    far    less    well 

known  than  it  deser\'es  to  be.  Even  if  we  do  not  take 
into  account  his  frail  health,  the  extent  of  his  labors 
is  little  short  of  marvelous.     His  literary  work  alone 


36  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

would  seem  to  have  been  enough  to  fill  to  the  full 
the  thirteen  years  of  his  missionary  activity.  In  ad- 
dition, he  preached  constantly;  he  made  long  journeys; 
he  gave  constant  thought  and  effort  to  his  schools; 
he  looked  after  the  poor;  he  established  a  theological 
seminary.  From  home  came  many  criticisms.  It  was 
said  that  he  made  concessions  to  the  caste  system  on 
the  one  hand ;  on  the  other  he  was  criticised  for  not 
gathering  in  converts  as  rapidly  as  did  the  Roman 
Catholic  missionaries  who  allowed  their  converts  to 
keep  all  their  old  customs.  He  was  reproached  be- 
cause he  paid  so  much  attention  to  the  schools.  The 
criticisms,  however,  which  caused  him  anxiety  and 
grief  serve  to-day  but  to  call  attention  to  his  splen- 
did common  sense  and  excellent  judgment,  which 
later  missionary  experience  has  tested.  The  commun- 
ity of  two  hundred  Christians  which  he  left  was  not 
only  converted — it  was  instructed  and  established  in 
the  faith. 

A  Second  The    death     of    Ziegenbalg    left     his 

Grave.  friend,      John     Ernst      Griindler,      in 

charge  of  the  mission.  He  had  been  a  teacher  at  Halle 
and  partook  of  the  devotion  of  all  connected  with  that 
great  institution.  For  a  short  time  he  labored  in  Tran- 
quebar  alone.  Soon  after  the  arrival  of  three  new 
missionaries  he  died  and  was  buried  in  1720  beside 
his  beloved  friend  in  the  new  church. 

Of  the  three  new  missionaries,  Benjamin  Schultze  as- 
sumed the  management  of  the  mission.  He  resembled 
Ziegenbalg  in  the  variety  of  his  talents.     Like  Zie- 


PIONEERS  AND  METHODS  37 

genbalg  he  felt  the  necessity  for  a  careful  instruction 
of  the  natives.  He  continued  the  work  of  translation, 
completing  the  Tamil  Old  Testament  and  translating  a 
part  of  the  Bible  into  Telugu  and  the  whole  into  Hin- 
dustani. After  doing  faithful  work,  Schultze,  being 
unwilling  to  accept  the  rulings  of  the  mission  which 
had  sent  him  to  India,  entered  the  service  of  an  Eng- 
lish mission.  After  sixteen  years  in  India  he  returned 
to  Halle. 

The  Mission  During  the  service  of  Schultze  a  mis- 
Grows,  sion  station  was  established  at  Cudda- 
lore  in  Madras.  In  1733  the  first  native  preacher 
who  had  been  baptized  by  Ziegenbalg  was  ordained 
to  the  ministry.  Schools  were  enlarged  and  another 
church  was  erected.  Presently  work  was  begun  in 
Madura  to  the  southeast  of  Tranquebar.  By  1740, 
thiry-four  years  after  Ziegenbalg  had  begun  his  work, 
the  mission  counted  five  thousand  six  hundred  Chris- 
tians. 

In  1 741  John  Philip  Fabricius  arrived  in  India.  He 
came  from  a  godly  family  in  Hesse  and  like  Luther 
had  given  up  the  study  of  the  law  for  the  study  of 
theology.  For  theology  he  had  gone  to  Halle  and 
there  had  heard  the  call  of  missions.  On  Good  Fri- 
day in  1742  he  preached  his  first  Tamil  sermon  and 
on  Christmas  in  that  year  he  was  assigned  to  the  sta- 
tion established  by  Schultze  in  Madras  where  he  re- 
mained till  his  death  in  1791.  Like  his  predecessors 
he  became  a  thorough  student  in  the  native  tongues. 


38  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

He  revised  the  translations  of  Ziegen- 
balg   and    Schultze    in    a   form   which 
remains  unchanged  to  this  day.     To  his  translations 
the  adjective  "golden"  has  been  applied.     He  trans- 
lated also  many  hymns  for  the  use  of  his  congregation. 

Together  w^ith  a  childlike  simplicity  and  amiabil- 
ity Fabricius  possessed  great  courage.  He  shared  the 
hardships  and  dangers  of  his  people  during  the  "Thir- 
ty Years'  War  in  South  India",  defending  his  congre- 
gation upon  one  occasion  at  the  risk  of  his  life. 

Another  Fabricius  whose  name  should  be  recorded 
was  that  of  Sebastian,  the  brother  of  John  Philip,  who 
vras  for  many  years  the  missionary  secretary  in  Halle 
and  the  devoted  friend  of  all  missionaries. 

Christian  William  Gericke,  "a  great  and  gifted 
man",  arrived  in  India  in  1767,  coming  like  his  pre- 
decessors from  Halle.  His  first  field  of  labor  was 
Cuddalore  where  he  preached  until  war  made  neces- 
sary the  abandonment  of  the  mission.  Gericke  re- 
mained throughout  the  conflict,  still  preaching  and 
exhorting  and  supporting  his  children  in  the  faith.  He 
saw  his  converts  suffering  cruelly  and  was  compelled 
to  watch  the  soldiers  changing  his  church  into  a  powder 
magazine. 

In  Madras  whither  he  was  invited  he  took  over  the 
work  of  Fabricius,  who  was  now  old  and  infirm. 
From  there  he  was  able  to  visit  occasionally  the  scat- 
tered members  of  his  Cuddalore  flock. 

The  number  of  his  converts  amounted 

vange  is  .    .^  ^  short  time  to  three  thousand.     It 

was  said  that  whole  villages  followed  him  when  he 


PIONEERS  AND  METHODS  39 

conducted  mission  tours,  which  were  likened  to  tri- 
umphal processions.  In  some  villages  temples  were 
stripped  of  their  idols  and  converted  into  houses  of 
worship.  When  he  approached  a  village  the  entire 
population  frequently  awaited  him.  It  is  related  that 
the  heathen  never  came  to  their  temples  as  they  came 
to  this  man  of  God.  Worn  out,  he  died  in  1803  at 
the  age  of  sixty-one. 

Another  Pious  ^^  ^'^  ^^^  ^^^^  °^  Bartholomew  Zie- 
Mother.  genbalg    so    in  the    case    of    Christian 

Frederick  Schivartz,  the  impulse  to  the  Christian  min- 
istry came  from  a  godly  mother.  She  died  when  the 
lad  was  but  five  years  old,  but  she  had  made  her  hus- 
band promise  that  her  boy  should  be  prepared  for 
the  ministry. 

Like  Ziegenbalg  and  Luther  and  many  other  re- 
ligious heroes,  Schwartz  suffered  in  his  youth  from  the 
weight  of  sin  and  the  fear  of  God's  judgment.  Like 
them  also  he  came,  after  study  of  God's  Word  and 
earnest  prayer,  to  rest  his  soul  upon  the  almighty 
promises.  At  Halle  he  met  Bejamin  Schultze  who 
called  upon  him  to  aid  in  his  revision  of  the  Tamil 
Bible.  Urged  by  his  teachers  to  consider  a  call  to 
the  mission  field,  he  felt  himself  at  first  to  be  un- 
worthy. Finally,  however,  he  agreed  to  go.  When 
he  informed  his  father  of  his  intention  he  met  with 
dismay  and  refusal.  The  elder  Schwartz  had  three 
children,  of  these  one  son  had  just  died,  a  daughter 
was  about  to  be  married  and  now  the  third  proposed 
to  go  to  distant  India!     Finally  the  father  was  won 


40  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

over  and,  giving  his  son  his  blessing,  charged  him  to 
win  man)^  souls  for  Christ,     How  many  times  in  mis- 
sionary history  has  this  drama  of  unwillingness,  per- 
suasion and  final  yielding  been  enacted ! 
A  Father's  May  all  fathers  and  mothers  who  give 

Sacrifice.  their  children  to  the  great  cause  have 

reason   for  gratitude   as   did  the   elder   Schwartz! 

In  January,  1750,  Schwartz  and  two  companions 
sailed,  only  to  return  on  account  of  fearful  storms. 
In  March  they  set  out  once  more  and  reached  Tran- 
quebar  at  the  end  of  July. 

A  Diligent  The  first  work  assigned  to  the  young 

Student.  nian  was  the  teaching  of  the  children 

in  the  schools.  He  longed  to  go  into  the  wilderness 
of  heathendom  outside  the  city  and  there  do  pioneer 
work,  and  in  preparation  for  the  day  when  he  should 
be  allowed  to  go,  he  applied  himself  to  a  study  of  the 
people,  their  language  and  their  religion.  As  a  result 
of  his  thorough  comprehension  of  their  nature  and 
their  needs  he  was  to  have  a  deep  and  lasting  in- 
fluence upon  them.  For  twelve  years  he  worked  in 
Tranquebar  and  the  outlying  villages. 

In  1755,  by  the  persuasion  of  the  wife  of  a  Ger- 
man officer,  Schwartz  and  his  companions  were  al- 
lowed to  pay  a  short  visit  to  Tanjore,  the  city  which 
was  the  seat  of  the  native  government  and  which  had 
hitherto  been  closed  to  missionaries. 
Opening  I"   1762  they  went  on  a  similar  visit 

Doors.  to   a   little   company  of   native   Chris- 

tians who  had  settled  in  Trichinopoli,  for  which  Eng- 


PIONEERS  AND  METHODS  41 

land  and  France  had  contended  for  many  years.  The 
city  was  a  center  for  idolatrous  worship  and  contained 
great  temples  to  the  elephant  god  Genesa,  to  Siva  and 
to  Vishnu.  Here  also  there  was  a  popular  Mohamme- 
dan shrine.  Well  might  the  visitors  feel  that  all 
the  evil  of  heathendom  was  gathered  to  greet  them. 

At  that  time  the  English  had  control  of  the  city 
and  to  the  joy  of  the  visitors  they  besought  them  to 
stay,  promising  that  they  would  build  them  a  church. 
It  was  decided  that  Schwartz  should  remain. 
A  True  -"  making   this   change   an    important 

Lutheran.  question  had  to  be  solved  by  Schwartz. 

In  order  to  take  up  the  work  which  seemed  offered 
by  Providence,  he  would  have  to  sever  connection  with 
the  Danish  Lutheran  society  whose  missionary  he  had 
hitherto  been  and  become  a  missionary  of  the  Church 
of  England.  In  the  end  he  decided  that  he  would 
accept  English  support  but  he  stipulated  that  he  would 
remain  a  true  Lutheran,  preaching  the  doctrines  of 
his  own  faith.  He  was  the  first  of  many  efficient 
German  Lutherans  who  laid  the  foundations  for  the 
work  of  other  churches,  and  who  thus  furnished 
an  example  of  true  brotherliness  which  has  often  been 
forgotten  or  overlooked. 

f^f.  Schwartz    had    always    been    diligent, 

Trichinopoli.  but  now  it  seemed  that  his  labors  be- 
came superhuman.  He  had  prayed  for  opportunity — 
here  was  unlimited  opportunity!  He  had  studied  dil- 
igently— here  were  men  of  many  tongues  to  whom  he 
might  preach.     With  true  wisdom  he  began  his  work. 


42  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

With  the  methods  of  the  Apostles  as  his  model  he 
trained  the  best  of  his  converts  to  become  missionaries 
to  their  own  people.  Each  morning  he  sent  them  out, 
two  by  two,  and  each  evening  he  listened  to  an  account 
of  their  work.  He  added  Hindustani  and  Persian  to 
the  languages  which  he  already  knew  so  that  he  might 
reach  the  Mohammedans  and  the  court,  and  studied  to 
improve  his  broken  English  so  that  he  might  preach 
to  the  English  soldiers  at  the  garrison.  His  ministra- 
tions to  them  after  a  serious  explosion  and  a  battle 
brought  him  gifts  from  the  government  and  the  sol- 
diers. Presently  he  built  at  the  foot  of  the  mighty  rock 
upon  which  stood  a  heathen  temple  a  Christian  church. 

Schvv'artz  was  now  fift3^-two  years  old. 

He  had  accomplished  large  tasks,  yet 
the  chief  labors  of  his  life  were  still  before  him.  He 
learned  to  his  amazement  that  the  spirit  at  Tanjore 
had  changed  and  he  was  urged  to  return,  not  for  a 
short  visit  as  before  but  to  remain.  The  new  Rnj;ili 
of  Tanjore  sought  his  advice  about  the  settlement  of 
certain  political  differences,  and  finding  a  divine  call 
in  this  summons,  Schwartz  left  his  work  at  Trichinopoli 
in  the  hands  of  others  and  took  up  his  abode  in  Tan- 
jore in  a  house  presented  by  the  rajah.  Here,  sup- 
ported by  the  rajah,  who,  however,  could  not  bring 
himself  quite  to  the  point  of  becoming  a  Christian, 
Schwartz  lived  for  twelve  years. 

Here  the  English  garrison  was  transformed  as  the 
garrison  at  Trichinopoli  had  been.  Two  churches 
v.ere  founded,  one  for  the  European  residents,  the  other 


PIONEERS  AND   METHODS  43 

for  native  Christians.  School  houses  were  built 
in  which  English  and  Tamil  were  taught  and  where 
the  Christian  religion  was  openl}'  proclaimed.  These 
schools  became  the  models  for  the  great  school  system 
of  the  English  government.  A  tribe  of  professional  rob- 
bers forsook  their  evil  lives  as  the  result  of  Schwartz's 
preaching,  sent  their  children  to  the  schools  and  set- 
tled down  to  the  cultivation  of  the  soil  and  to  silk  cul- 
ture. With  the  city  as  a  center  Schwartz  travelled  in 
all  directions  encouraging,  advising,  aiding.  He  es- 
tablished a  congregation  at  Tinnevelli,  to  the  south,  of 
which  we  shall  hear  later. 

The  Missionary  I"  ^'^^  history  of  India  Schwartz  is 
Statesman.  described  as  the  missionary  statesman. 

Such  without  any  will  of  his  own,  but  on  account  of 
circumstances  and  his  remarkable  character,  he  became. 
Foreseeing  war  with  a  neighboring  ruler  in  which  Tan- 
jore  was  likely  to  be  beseiged,  he  stored  away  quan- 
tities of  rice  upon  which  the  people  fed  and  which  saved 
multitudes  from  death.  When  the  rajah  grew  old 
the  governor  of  the  Madras  presidency  made  Schwartz 
the  head  of  a  commission  which  was  to  rule  in  his  stead, 
and  when  the  rajah  died  he  himself  made  Schwartz 
regent  during  the  minority  of  his  son.  Schwartz  tried 
to  avoid  this  heavy  responsibility,  until  the  rajah's 
brother  proved  cruel  and  incapable  of  governing.  Then 
the  mission  house  became  the  capitol  of  the  province 
and  for  two  years  the  "king-priest"  reigned.  After 
the  heir  had  come  to  the  throne,  he  consulted  Schwartz 
on  all  important  questions. 


44  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

The  character  of  this  missionary  hero  is  beautifully 
described  by  his  biographer,  Dr.  Charles  E.  Hay.* 

"In  undertaking  all  the  secular  duties  thus  imposed 
upon  him,  the  missionary  was  never  lost  in  the  states- 
man. He  still  gathered  his  children  and  catechumens 
about  him  daily,  preached  whenever  a  little  company  of 
people  could  be  assembled  and  superintended  the  la- 
bors of  the  increasing  number  of  missionaries  sent  by 
various  European  societies  to  India.  These  all  rec- 
ognized him  as  their  real  leader,  and  it  was  universally 
felt  that  the  first  preparatory  step  for  successful  mis- 
sionary labor  in  southern  India  was  to  catch  the  in- 
spiration and  receive  the  counsel  of  the  untitled  mis- 
sionary bishop  at  Tanjore.  Around  his  residence 
building  after  building  was  erected — chapels,  school- 
houses,  seminaries,  missionary  homes,  etc — all  set  in  a 
beautiful  garden,  filled  with  rare  tropical  plants.  What 
a  refuge  for  the  wearied  and  perhaps  discouraged  cat- 
echist !  What  a  scene  of  beauty  and  peace  to  allure  the 
steps  of  the  hopeless  devotee  of  a  heartless  idolatry! 
But  the  center  of  attraction  for  all  alike  was  the 
radiant  countenance  of  the  grand  old  man  upon  whom 
his  seventy  years  rested  never  so  lightly — never  too 
tired  to  entertain  the  humblest  visitor,  always  ready 
to  help  by  word  or  deed  in  any  perplexity." 
Illness  and  ^"  October,  1797,  the  old  man  fell  ill. 

Death.  Thinking  that  his  end  was  at  hand  he 

sent  for  the  young  rajah  whose  guardian  he  had  been 


*In  Missionary  Heroes   of  the  Lutheran   Church.     Phila- 
delphia:     Lutheran    Publication    Society. 


PIONEERS  AND  METHODS  45 

and  urged  him  once  more  to  hear  the  heavenly  in- 
vitation. Would  that  we  could  record  that  this  young 
man  answered,  like  so  many  of  his  humble  subjects, 
"I  believe" !  Improving  somewhat,  Schwartz  sum- 
moned his  pupils  once  more  and  went  on  with 
his  work.  The  end  came  at  last  in  February,  1798. 
With  his  grieving  mission  family  gathered  about  him, 
he  fell  asleep,  his  last  words  being,  "Into  Thy  hands 
I  commend  my  spirit.  Thou  has  redeemed  me.  Thou 
faithful  God." 

A  Noble  Claiming  him  for  their  own,  those  for 

Tribute.  whom  he  had  labored  provided  for  his 

burial.  The  rajah  who  followed  the  bier  as  chief 
mourner  built  a  handsome  monument  on  which  he  is 
represented  as  kissing  the  hand  of  his  dying  friend. 
The  East  India  Company  placed  a  memorial  in  the 
church  at  Madras  with  the  inscription,  "Sacred  to 
the  Memory  of  Christian  Frederick  Schwartz  whose 
life  was  one  continued  efifort  to  imitate  the  example 
of  his  blessed  Master,  He,  during  a  period  of  fifty 
years,  'went  about  doing  good.'  In  him  religion  ap- 
peared not  with  a  gloomy  aspect  or  forbidding  mien, 
but  with  a  graceful  form  and  placid  dignity.  Beloved 
and  honored  by  Europeans,  he  was,  if  possible,  held 
in  still  deeper  reverence  by  the  natives  of  this  coun- 
try of  every  degree  and  sect.  The  poor  and  injured 
looked  up  to  him  as  an  unfailing  friend  and  advo- 
cate. The  great  and  powerful  concurred  in  yielding 
him  the  highest  homage  ever  paid  in  this  quarter  of 
the  globe  to  European  virtue." 


46  THE  STOEY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

Thus  died  this  godly  man.  To  those  whose  aim 
is  heavenly  peace  we  commend  such  a  life  as  his.  I'o 
those  whose  ambition  includes  a  desire  for  earthly 
honor  we  commend  him  also.  The  young  rajah  added 
to  his  handsome  memorial  another  tribute  composed 
by  him  and  engraved  on  the  stone  which  covers  his 
body. 

*Tirm  wast  thou,  humble  and  wise, 
Honest,  pure,  free  from  disguise; 
Father  of  orphans,  the  widow's  support. 
Comfort  in  sorrows  of  every  sort: 
To  the  benighted,  dispenser  of  light, 
Doing  and  pointing  to  that  which  is  right. 
Blessing  to  princes,  to  people,  to  me, 
May  I,  my  father,  be  worthy  of  thee." 

Work  for  Aiding  and  succeeding  Christian  Fred- 

Another  Church,  grick  Schwartz  in  the  English  mission 
was  his  adopted  son,  the  Rev.  J.  B.  Kohlhoff,  who 
arrived  at  Tranquebar  in  1737  and  worked  among  the 
Tamils  for  fifty-three  years.  His  son,  John  Caspar, 
was  ordained  by  Schwartz.  Together  Schwartz  and 
the  two  Kohlhoffs  worked  in  India  for  an  aggregate 
period  of  one  hundred  and  fifty-six  years.  Still  an- 
other Lutheran  in  the  English  service  was  fV.  T. 
Ringeltaube,  who  was  trained  at  Halle.  Upon  the 
foundation  which  he  laid  the  London  Missionary  So- 
ciety has  built  nobly  and  has  now  after  a  hundred 
years  a  Christian  community  of  seventy  thousand. 


PIONEERS  AND  METHODS  47 

A  Period  ^^  '^  estimated  that  at  the  end  of  the 

of  Neglect.  Eighteenth  Century  the  Danish-Halle 

mission  in  India  numbered  fifteen  thousand  Christians. 

Then  a  period  of  rationalism  in  Europe  brought  about 

indifference  and  neglect  of  the  mission  fields.     From 

England  came  the  first  wave  of  mounting  missionary 

zeal  and   into  English   hands  passed   a  large  part   of 

the   work   of   the   Danish-Halle   missionaries.      While 

we  acknowledge  that  they  have  continued   the  work 

with   zeal   and   with   marked   success,   yet   we   cannot 

but  regret  that  so  much  that  was  ours,  so  much  that 

was  won  by  the  devotion  of  Ziegenbalg  and  Schwartz, 

no   longer   bears   the    Lutheran    name. 

.     ^.  In  the  service  of  the  English  mission 

Another  *' 

Steadfast  was  Karl  Eivald  Rhenius,    a    German 

Lutheran.  Lutheran  who  was  sent  soon  after  the 

opening  of  the  new  century  to  that  field  which  had 
passed  partly  from  Danish  Halle  to  English  hands. 
He  went  first  to  Tranquebar  and  thence  to  Aladras, 
where  for  five  years  he  preached  and  studied.  At  the 
end  of  this  time  he  was  transferred  to  Palmacotta, 
the  chief  city  of  the  Tinnevelli  district.  Here  he 
began  an  original  work,  the  founding  of  Christian 
villages.  As  soon  as  sufficient  natives  were  converted, 
land  was  bought  and  they  were  settled  upon  it  so 
that  they  might  be  removed  from  former  associations 
and  temptations.  Presently  a  native  organization  was 
formed  the  object  of  which  was  the  aid  of  new 
Christian  settlements. 


48  THE  STORY  OP  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

In  1832  Mr,  Rhenius  withdrew  from  service  as  a 
missionary  of  the  English  society,  the  chief  ground  of 
difficulty  being  the  demand  of  the  society  that  he  be 
ordained  by  the  English  Church,  and  for  four  years 
he  conducted  an  independent  mission.  In  character  and 
capacity  for  work  Rhenius  was  not  unlike  Christian 
Frederick  Schwartz.  Beside  a  great  amount  of  trans- 
lating he  had  time  to  prepare  a  valuable  essay  on  the 
"Principles  of  Translating  the  Holy  Scriptures".  He 
is  notable  also  as  one  of  the  earliest  missionaries  to 
take  a  decided  stand  against  the  observance  of  caste. 

The  appeal  of  Rhenius  for  his  independent  Lu- 
theran mission  in  India  was  one  of  the  influences  in 
the  first  missionary  activity  of  the  American  Lutheran 
Church.  Upon  his  death  his  followers  returned  to 
the  English  Mission.  In  Tinnevelli  where  Christian 
Frederick  Schwartz  laid  the  foundation  and  Rhenius 
helped  to  build  upon  it,  there  are  now  over  one  hun- 
dred thousand  Christians  belonging  to  the  Church 
of  England. 

l^  the  It  was  in  1704  that  the  Danish  King 

Far  North.  Frederick   IV.  turned  his  thoughts  to 

the  Christianizing  of  his  East  India  possessions.  Soon 
after  this  time  his  attention  was  drawn  to  a  need 
nearer  at  hand.  Among  the  Lapps  who  lived  in  the 
arctic  lands  to  the  north  there  was  great  destitution, 
both  spiritual  and  material.  Here  idolatry  and  sac- 
rifices to  the  evil  spirits  were  common  and  the  official 
transferral  of  the  country  from  the  Roman  to  the 
Evangelical    Church    had    had    no    efifect,    since    both 


PIONEERS  AND  METHODS  49 

before  and  after  the  natives  were  at  heart  heathen. 
Those  who  were  most  devout  in  spirit  had  worshipped 
both  the  heathen  and  the  Christian  gods,  feeling  that 
thus  were  they  safe. 

A  commission  was  appointed  by  the  King  of  Den- 
mark-Norway in  1 714  to  inquire  into  the  state  of 
these  northern  people.  To  Finland  was  sent  in  17 16 
Thomas  von  PFesten,  who  had  himself  presented  viv- 
idly the  misery  of  these  poor  Esquimaux.  Among  them 
he  found  Isak  Olsen,  a  devoted  school  master  who 
had  been  engaged  for  fourteen  years  in  missionary 
work,  and  who  now  offered  his  services  for  von  Wes- 
ten's  undertaking. 

Concerning  this  Isak  Olsen,  it  is  related  in  Stock- 
flleth's  Diary  {Dagbog)  that  he  had  labored  "with 
apostolic  fervor  and  faithfulness ;  in  poverty  and  self- 
denial  ;  in  perils  at  sea,  and  in  perils  on  land.  The 
Finns  hated  him  because  he  discovered  their  idolatry 
and  their  places  of  sacrifice;  almost  as  a  pauper,  and 
frequently  half  clothed,  he  travelled  about  among  them. 
When,  as  it  frequently  happened,  he  was  compelled 
to  journey  across  the  mountains,  they  gave  him  the 
most  refractory  reindeer,  in  order  that  he  might  per- 
ish on  the  journey.  By  all  kinds  of  maltreatment,  they 
sought  to  shorten  his  life,  and  to  w^eary  him  out.  In 
this  purpose,  however,  they  were  not  successful ;  for 
God  was  with  Isak,  and  labored  with  him,  so  that 
his  toil  prospered."  He  not  only  instructed  the  Finns 
in  Christianity,  but  he  taught  a  number  of  Finnish 
youths  to  write,  an  art    which    very    few    Norsemen 


50  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

had  acquired  at  that  time.  In  1716,  von  Westen  took 
him  to  Throndhjem,  Norway,  where  he  translated  the 
Catechism  and  the  Athanasian  Creed  into  the  language 
of  the  Lapps. 

Travelling  from  place  to  place,  von  Westen  won 
the  affection  of  the  benighted  people  whom  he  loved. 
He  exposed  before  them  the  foolishness  of  the  sor- 
cerers, built  churches,  educated  the  children  and  sent 
young  men  to  Throndhjem  to  prepare  them- 
selves to  be  ministers  to  their  people.  The  hardships 
of  three  missionary  journeys  undertaken  and  carried 
out  in  a  few  years  so  wore  upon  him  that  he  was 
added  at  the  age  of  forty-five  to  those  who  have  gone 
to  their  reward. 

To  Sw^edish  Lapland  went  Per  Fjellstrom  (died 
1764)  w^ho  did  not  only  valuable  missionary  work  him- 
self, but  who  laid  the  foundation  for  all  future  work 
by  his  translations  of  the  New  Testament,  the  Cate- 
chism and  many  of  the  Psalms.  Through  him  and 
his  associates  the  whole  of  Swedish  Lapland  heard  the 
pure  Gospel. 

In  1739,  a  royal  directorate  was  appointed  to  guide 
and  supervise  the  Church  and  school  system  of  Swedisli 
Lapland.  It  designated  Per  Holmbom  and  Per  Hog- 
strom  as  missionaries  to  that  district.  Hogstrom, 
who  died  in  1784,  is  the  best  known  of  Per  Fjell- 
strom's  associates.  He  gained  great  renown  among 
the  Lapps.  He  has  described  his  mission  labors  among 
them,  and  his  Question  Book  in  the  Lapp  language,  is 
a  catechetical  work  of  merit. 


PIONEERS  AND   METHODS  51 

To  tlie  west  of  the  Scandinavian  countries  lies 
Iceland,  which  needed  no  missionaries.  Visiting  Eu- 
rope in  the  Sixteenth  Century,  Icelanders  carried  back 
to  their  country  the  story  of  the  Reformation.  They 
introduced  at  once  the  Danish  Lutheran  liturgy  and 
translated  and  printed  the  Bible.  After  some  oppo- 
sition, the  work  of  the  Reformation  became  complete. 
A  Zealous  Beyond    Iceland   lies   Greenland   with 

Soul.  its  snowy  fields,  its  great  glaciers,  its 

long  dark  night  and  its  bitter  cold.  In  the  Ninth 
Century  a  colony  of  Norwegians  settled  there,  but 
in  the  course  of  time  perished  from  cold  or  star- 
vation or  by  the  hand  of  enemies.  Their  fate  was  un- 
known and  they  were  forgotten  when  Hans  Egede,  a 
Lutheran  pastor  at  Vaagen  in  Norway,  read  of  their 
settlement  and  became  possessed  of  a  desire  to  preach 
to  them  that  Gospel  which  had  proved  so  great  a 
blessing  to  his  own  land.  In  1710  he  wrote  to  the 
King  and  to  several  bishops  urging  that  he  be  allowed 
to  go  as  a  missionary  to  these  distant  folk. 

The  King  was  in  sympathy  with  his  desire,  but  not 
so  his  people.  The  plan  was  thought  to  be  impracti- 
cal, if  not  insane.  Egede's  own  family  bitterly  opposed 
him. 

But  Egede  was  at  once  gentle  and  persistent.  Sup- 
ported by  the  devotion  of  his  wife  he  continued  to  urge 
his  cause.  He  visited  the  King,  but  the  interview  had 
a  contrary  result  from  that  which  he  hoped.  The  King 
asked  those  who  opposed  the  project  to  send  in  the 
reasons  for  their  objection  to  the  court,  and  so  prompt- 


52  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

I3'  and  fully  did  they  respond  that  Egede  became  an 
object  of  even  greater  derision. 

The  Ship  Finally  Egede  persuaded  a  few  men  to 

"Hope".  subscribe  two  hundred  dollars  apiece; 

he  gave  from  his  scanty  store  six  hundred,  and  all  to- 
gether ten  thousand  dollars  was  gathered.  In  a  ves- 
sel which  he  called  "The  Hope"  he  set  out  May,  1721, 
accompanied  by  his  wife  and  little  children  and  some 
colonists,  in  all  about  forty  souls.  After  a  perilous 
voyage  partly  among  masses  of  ice  floating  in 
a  stormy  sea  they  landed  in  Greenland  in  July.  The 
situation  which  they  met  was  uncomfortable  and  de- 
pressing. "As  many  as  twenty  natives  occupied  one 
tent,  their  bodies  unwashed,  their  hair  uncombed  and 
both  their  persons  and  their  clothing  dripping  with 
rancid  oil.  The  tents  were  filled  and  surrounded  with 
seal  flesh  in  all  stages  of  decomposition  and  the  only 
scavengers  were  the  dogs.  Few  had  any  thought  be- 
yond the  routine  of  their  daily  life.  No  article  that 
could  be  carried  ofif  was  safe  within  their  reach,  and 
lying  was  open  and  shameless.  Skillful  in  derision  and 
mimicry,  and  despising  men,  who,  so  they  said,  spent 
their  time  in  looking  at  a  paper  or  scratching  it  with 
a  feather,  they  did  not  study  gentle  modes  of  giving 
expression  to  their  feelings.  They  wanted  nothing 
but  plently  of  seals,  and  as  for  the  fire  of  hell,  that 
would  be  a  pleasant  contrast  to  their  terrible  cold. 
When  the  missionary  asked  them  to  deal  truly  with 
God,  they  asked  when  he  had  seen  Him  last. 


PIONEERS  AND   METHODS  53 

"The  cold  as  winter  drew  near  was  terrific.  The 
eiderdown  pillows  stiffened  with  frost,  the  hoarfrost 
extended  to  the  mouth  of  the  stove  and  alcohol  froze 
upon  the  table.  The  sun  was  invisible  for  two  months. 
There  was  no  change  in  the  dreary  night."* 
The  Reward  The  devotion  of  Egede  to  these  de- 
of  Faith.  graded  people  was  not  shared  by  the 

colonists  and  traders  who  had  come  with  him.  When 
the  expected  ship  failed  to  appear  in  the  spring  they 
announced  that  they  would  return.  They  had  al- 
ready begun  to  tear  down  the  buildings  preparatory 
to  their  departure  when  the  faith  of  Egede  was  re- 
warded. A  ship  arrived  and  with  it  the  welcome  news 
that  the  mission  would  be  supported. 

During  the  summer,  Egede,  in  his  exploration  of 
the  various  bays  which  indent  the  coast,  discovered 
the  ruins  of  one  of  the  settlements  which  he  had 
read  about  and  which  had  seemed  to  beckon  him  to 
Greenland.  There  were  only  ruins  remaining,  but 
it  seemed  to  this  devoted  soul  that  he  could  hear  the 
echoes  of  Norwegian  hymns  and  Norwegian  prayers. 
The  next  year  in  a  journey  along  the  coast  he  found 
many  other  ruins,  among  them  those  of  a  church  fifty 
by  twenty  feet  with  walls  six  feet  thick.  Nearby  in 
the  churchyard  rested  the  bones  of  pastor  and  peo- 
ple. 

A  Devoted  Preaching,    translating,    trying    to    es- 

Wife-  tablish   better  methods  of  agriculture, 

now   receiving  aid   from   home,   now   apparently   for- 


*Hans  Egede:  the  Rev.  Thomas   Laurie,  Missionary  Re- 

I'ieiv  of  the  World,   December,    1889. 


54  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

gotten,  Egede  labored  for  fifteen  years.  Beside  the 
heavenly  assurance  of  ultimate  victory  his  chief  so- 
lace was  the  devotion  of  his  wife.  "She  was  con- 
fined to  the  monotony  of  their  humble  home,  while 
he  was  called  here  and  there  by  the  duties  of  his 
office;  but  though  its  comforts  were  very  scanty,  she 
saw  the  ships  from  Norway  come  and  go,  and  heard 
tidings  from  her  native  land  without  any  desire  to 
desert  her  work.  Amid  all  his  troubles  her  husband 
ever  found  her  face  serene  and  her  spirit  rejoicing 
in  God.  His  greatest  trial  was  the  want  of  success 
in  his  work.  Though  many  pretended  to  believe,  he 
could  find  little  change  in  heart  or  life,  for  those  who 
afitcted  to  hear  the  Word  with  joy,  among  their  own 
people  still  spoke  of  his  instructions  and  prayers  with 
derision."* 

Presently  a  fort  was  established  to  protect  the  col- 
ony and  the  island  from  other  nations,  but  the  pres- 
ence of  armed  men  drove  the  islanders  farther  away. 
After  the  death  of  Frederick  IV,  the  colonists  were 
commanded  to  return  to  Denmark.  Egede  declined 
to  go.  In  1733  hope  was  once  more  kindled  by  the 
announcement  that  trade  would  be  renewed  and  the 
mission  be  supported. 

But  greater  misfortunes  were  at  hand. 
A  Sad  Heart.         .      ,       -1         •  1       •         r  n 

A  learrul  epidemic  of  smallpox  rav- 
aged the  country.  "In  their  despair  some  stabbed 
themselves,  others  plunged  into  the  sea.  In  one  hut 
an   only   son   died   and   the   father  enticed   his  wife's 

*Ibid. 


PIONEERS  AND  METHODS  55 

sister  in  and  murdered  her,  as  having  bewitched  his 
son  and  so  caused  his  death.  In  this  great  trial  Egede 
and  his  son  went  everywhere,  nursing  the  sick,  com- 
forting the  bereaved  and  burying  the  dead.  Often 
they  found  only  empty  houses  and  unburied  corpses. 
On  one  island  they  found  only  one  girl  with  her 
three  little  brothers.  After  burying  the  rest  of  the 
people,  the  father  lay  down  in  the  grave  he  had  pre- 
pared for  himself  and  his  infant  child,  both  sick  with 
the  plague  and  bade  the  girl  cover  them  with  skins 
and  stones  to  protect  their  bodies  from  wild  beasts. 
Egede  sent  the  survivors  to  the  colony,  lodged  as 
many  as  his  house  would  hold  and  nursed  them  with 
care.  Many  were  touched  by  such  kindness,  and 
one  who  had  often  mocked  the  good  man,  said  to  him 
now,  'You  have  done  for  us  more  than  we  do  for 
our  own  people;  you  have  buried  our  dead  and  have 
told  us  of  a  better  life.'  "  Finally  the  missionary's  wife 
fell  also  a  victim  to  the  plague.  Dying  she  blessed 
him  and  his  work. 

In  1736,  broken  in  health,  Egede  returned  to  Den- 
mark, invited  by  the  King.  There  by  pen  and  tongue 
he  continued  to  work  for  Greenland  until  his  death. 
The  Church  Upon  the  foundation  laid  by  Egede 
of  Greenland.  missionaries  of  a  closely-related  Church 
built  a  noble  superstructure.  Appealing  to  the  heart 
rather  than  to  the  intellect,  the  heroic  Moravians  won 
the  country  for  Christ.  Soon  spring  dawned  in  that 
wintry  land.  When  a  Moravian  missionary  dwelt 
upon  the  love  of  God  and  the  agony  of   Christ,   an 


56  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

Esquimaux  stepped  forward  asking  pagerly,  "How 
was  that?  Tell  me  that  again,  for  I  also  would  be 
saved." 

The  mission  to  Greenland  offers  not  only  records 
of  noble  devotion  and  sacrifice  but  a  touching  and  re- 
markable conclusion.  In  1899  the  Moravians  handed 
back  to  the  Danish  Lutheran  Church  the  work  which 
the  Lutherans  had  begun.  The  missionary  task  was 
complete;  with  no  selfish  desire  to  hold  for  themselves 
in  ease  what  they  had  won  in  great  difficulty,  the  Mo- 
ravians turned  their  labors  into  other  fields  among 
the  many  which  they  have  so  diligently  harvested. 
The  Lutheran  Church  which  has  sent  so  many  la- 
borers into  other  mission  fields  has  here  had  a  brother- 
ly return. 

The  latter  part  of  the  Eighteenth  Cen- 
A   IVIhIhcIv 

tury    offers    a  less    happy    missionary 

spectacle  than  the  earlier  part.  U^pon  religious  life, 
not  only  in  Lutheran  countries  but  in  other  Protest- 
ant countries  fell  the  blight  of  indifference  and  of 
rationalism.  When  men  do  not  believe  the  doctrines 
of  the  Scriptures,  when  a  future  life  becomes  a  mat- 
ter of  doubt  and  personal  salvation  the  subject  of 
amusement,  they  cease  to  feel  an  obligation  to  those 
who  are  less  favorably  situated,  and  the  carrying  of 
the  Gospel  message  becomes  a  useless  or  worse  than 
useless  undertaking. 

This  malady  of  unbelief  affected  the  Church,  how- 
ever, for  only  a  short  time.  By  the  beginning  of  the 
Nineteenth    Century  men   were   already   returning  to 


PIONEERS  AND  METHODS  57 

the  hope  which  they  had  rejected.  With  the  return 
came  once  more  that  sense  of  obligation  to  the  heathen 
world  which  had  been  so  clearly  seen  by  von  Welz, 
Francke,  Ziegenbalg  and  Schwartz. 
A  Missionary  The  new  light  shone  out  in  the  open- 
School.  I'ng  year  of  the  new  century.  Then 
John  Jaenickcj  who  was  called  "Father"  Jaenicke, 
established  in  Berlin  a  missionary  school,  the  first 
Protestant  institution  whose  object  was  primarily  the 
direct  training  of  missionaries.  For  many  years  Jae- 
nicke had  been  the  only  believing  preacher  of  the 
Gospel  in  Berlin.  In  spite  of  a  disease  which  threat- 
ened constantly  a  fatal  hemorrhage,  he  labored  with 
a  humorous  disregard  of  his  physical  disability — and 
lived  to  be  eighty  years  old!  His  church  in  Berlin 
was  composed  partly  of  Bohemians,  and  to  these  he 
preached  in  the  morning  in  Bohemian,  his  native  tongue. 
In  the  afternoon  he  preached  in  German  and  on  Mon- 
day evening  he  gave  a  powerful  review  of  his  Sunday 
sermons,  dwelling  constantly  on  two  cardinal  points, 
human  sin  and  divine  grace,  and  crying  earnestly  to 
his  people.  "You  are  sinners,  you  need  a  Savior,  here  in 
the    Scriptures    Christ   offers    Himself    to    you!" 

Visiting  the  sick,  giving  alms  to  the  needy,  comfort- 
ing the  desolate,  and  alas!  constantly  laughed  at  and 
mocked,  this  godly  man  pursued  the  course  which 
he  had  set  for  himself.  As  in  the  case  of  Francke, 
so  in  the  case  of  Jaenicke  an  abounding  charity  con- 
cerned itself  not  only  with  those  at  hand  but  with 
those  afar  off.     From  his  missionary  school,  he  sent 


58  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

out  in  twenty-seven  years  about  eighty  missionaries. 
Before  his  death  the  beauty  of  his  character  and  the 
softening  heart  of  his  country  enabled  men  to  see  him 
as  he  was. 

The  Jaenicke  school  exists  no  more  as  such,  but  in 
the  impulse  given  to  missions  and  in  a  successor,  the 
Berlin  Missionary  Society,  it  still  lives. 

Methods. 

A  Method  ^^^'    those    who    are    acquainted    only 

of  Work.  with    the    missionary    methods    of    the 

American  Lutheran  Church,  in  which  missionary  work 
is  done  officially  by  the  various  branches  of  the  Church, 
it  is  necessary  to  explain  briefly  the  diflferent  procedure 
of  Germany  and  other  foreign  countries.  Where 
the  Lutheran  Church  is  the  State  Church,  it  cares 
officially  only  for  those  within  the  State.  All  other 
varieties  of  Christian  work  are  carried  on  by  socie- 
ties which  have  been  organized  either  by  groups  of 
zealous  men  and  women  or  else  by  a  single  person. 
The  circumstances  connected  with  the  foundation  and 
the  history  of  these  organizations  are  often  intensely 
interesting.  It  is  to  be  regretted  that  we  can  give 
only  a  short  space  to  each  one. 

German  Societies. 

A  Century  ^^  missionary  society  has  had  a  more 

of  Service.  interesting    beginning    than    the    Basel 

Society.  There  was  encamped  on  one  side  of  the  Swiss 
city  of  Basel  in  1815  a  Hungarian  army,  on  the  other 


PIONEERS  AND  METHODS  59 

side  a  Russian  army.  Destruction  seemed  certain, 
and  when  it  was  averted  the  pious  folk  determined  in 
gratitude  to  establish  a  mission  seminary  to  train 
preachers  for  the  heathen.  While  this  undertaking 
is  partly  Reformed,  its  intimate  connection  with  the 
Lutheran  Church  makes  it  proper  for  us  to  include 
its  work  in  a  history  of  Lutheran  missions.  Many 
of  its  directors  and  a  large  proportion  of  its  workers 
have  been  Lutherans  and  a  great  deal  of  its  support 
has  come  from  Lutheran  sources. 

At  first  the  men  trained  in  the  Basel  school  went 
into  the  employ  of  English  missionary  societies,  but 
in  1822,  after  eighty-eight  missionaries  had  served 
the  English  Church  Missionary  Society  alone,  the 
society  sent  its  men  to  its  own  fields.  Between  1815 
and  1882  the  society  trained  eleven  hundred  and  twelve 
candidates. 

The  Basel  society  has  certain  distinct  and  peculiar 
characteristics.  It  combines  with  its  evangelical  work 
industrial  work  which  is  managed  by  a  missionary 
trading  society.  It  was  the  first  of  the  German  socie- 
ties to  combine  medical  with  evangelical  work.  It 
trains  surgeons,  farmers,  weavers,  shoemakers,  bakers, 
workers  in  wood  and  iron,  tailors,  printers  and  me- 
chanics as  well  as  teachers  and  ministers. 

In    19 1 5,    surrounded   once    more    by   cannon,    but 
still  in  peace,  the  Basel  society  celebrated  its  centen 
nial,  in  rejoicing  yet  in  sadness.     It  has  now  stations 
in   India,   China  and  Africa.      Its   last  accessible   re- 
port gave  its  income  in   191 3  as  $586,000. 


60  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

P      2  By    1823   the   attitude   of   the   Church 

Approval.  toward   missions  had   so   changed    and 

improved  that  ten  distinguished  men,  theologians, 
jurists  and  officials  of  the  government  issued  "An 
Appeal  for  Charitable  Contributions  in  aid  of  Evan- 
gelical Missions".  The  organization  which  they 
formed  received  the  royal  sanction  and  was  called 
the  Berlin  Society.  In  1834  the  first  missionaries 
were  sent  to  South  Africa.  At  present  the  society 
works  in  Africa  and  China.  Its  last  income  was 
$291,000. 

Another  Large  ^^  in  the  case  of  the  Basel  Society,  so 
Society.  in  the  case  of  the  Rhenish  Society  there 

are  two  elements,  Lutheran  and  Reformed,  who  work 
together  in  all  its  enterprises.  Its  school  and  head- 
quarters are  in  Barmen,  Westphalia;  its  first  mission- 
aries were  sent  to  South  Africa  in  1829.  Its  fields  lie 
in  Africa,  the  Dutch  East  Indies  and  China.  Its  in- 
come was  in  191 3  $328,000. 

In  the  north  of  Germany  is  located  the  North  Ger- 
man or  Bremen  Society  whose  workers  are  trained  at 
Basel  and  whose  field  is  West  Africa  where  it  has 
offered  an  amazing  sacrifice.  Its  income  was  in  191 3, 
$7 1 ,000. 

A  "At  t  T\\e  Leipsic  Society,  which  was  organ- 
Among  ized  in  1836,  received  its  strongest  im- 

Missions.  pj.ggg    fj.Qj^    j^g    director    Doctor   Karl 

Graul,  a  thoroughly  trained  theologian  and  a  devoted 
supporter  of  missions.  He  endeavored  to  make  this 
society  the  center  of  the  missionary  work  of  the  whole 


PIONEERS  AND   METHODS  61 

Lutheran  Church.  He  not  only  organized,  advised 
and  managed  from  the  home  base  but  spent  four  years 
in  India.  The  society  works  in  India  and  Africa. 
On  account  of  the  thoroughness  and  solidity  of  its 
work  it  has  been  called  "the  aristocrat  among  mis- 
sions". Its  income  was  in  1913,  $179,000. 
The  First  Mis-  The  Hermannshurg  Mission  was  be- 
sionary  Ship.  gun  in  1 849.  Its  genius  was  Louis 
Harms,  the  pastor  of  the  Lutheran  church  in  the 
village  of  Hermannshurg.  Though  he  was  brought 
up  under  rationalistic  influences  he  remained  true  to 
the  principles  of  the  Gospel.  He  believed  that  mis- 
sionary work  could  be  best  accomplished  by  the  send- 
ing out  of  colonies  of  missionaries  who  should  be  a 
source  of  support  and  encouragement  to  one  another  and 
who  should  furnish  to  the  natives  an  example  of  Chris- 
tian behavior  in  all  the  walks  of  life.  His  enthusi- 
asm imparted  itself  to  his  congregation  which  was  will- 
ing to  make  any  sacrifice  in  order  that  his  plans  might 
be  carried  out.  His  first  missionary  party  numbered 
twenty,  twelve  missionaries  and  eight  colonists  who 
sailed  on  the  ship  "Candace"  for  East  Africa.  Be- 
side its  African  field  the  Hermannshurg  Society  has 
stations  in  India  and  Persia.  Its  income  in  19 13  was 
$139,000. 

The  Work  of  Like  the  Hermannshurg  Mission,  the 
One  Man.  Gossner  Mission  owes  its  existence  to 

the  faith  and  piety  of  a  single  man.  This  remarkable 
person,  John  Evangelist  Gossner,  was  originally  a 
Roman   Catholic   priest  who  was  banished   from   Ba- 


62  THE  STORY  OP  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

varia  because  his  preaching  and  his  writing  tended 
constantly  away  from  orthodox  Romanism.  Perse- 
cuted, he  declared  his  intention  of  entering  the  Lu- 
theran Church,  and  was  put  through  a  severe  ex- 
amination. Proving  that  he  held  the  pure  faith,  he 
was  ordained  about  1827.  He  was  subsequently  pas- 
tor of  large  congregations,  among  them  that  of  which 
"Father"  Jaenicke  had  been  pastor.  His  labors  knew  al- 
most no  limit  and  included  home  missions,  foreign  mis- 
sions, religious  correspondence,  writing  and  works  )f 
mercy  of  all  kinds.  That  activity  with  which  we  are 
most  concerned  is  the  mission  in  India  which  he  estab- 
lished on  certain  independent  principles.  He  believed, 
for  instance,  that  missionaries  should  work  with  their 
hands  and  thus  provide  for  their  maintenance  as  did 
the  Apostle  Paul.  In  ten  years  he  sent  out  to  vari- 
ous missionary  societies  eighty  missionaries.  In  1844 
he  established  a  mission  of  his  own  among  the  Kols 
in  India.  To-day  the  Gossner  mission  concentrates 
its  efforts  chiefly  upon  its  India  station.  Its  income 
was  in  191 3  $184,000. 

Forty    years    had    now    passed    since 
Promising  Father   Jaenicke   founded    his   mission- 

Societies.  ^j.y   school   and   the   new  life   of   mis- 

sions began.  For  about  twenty  years  no  societies  were 
formed.  Since  that  time  there  have  been  many  new 
undertakings.  Among  them  is  the  Breklum  or  Schles- 
wig-Hohtein  Society  which  was  founded  in  1877  by 
a  devoted  Pastor  Jensen.  Its  fields  are  India  and 
Africa   and   its  income  was   in    191 3   $67,000,     The 


PIONEERS  AND   METHODS  63 

Neukirchen  Society  was  founded  in  1882  in  the  Rhine 
province,  by  Ludwig  Doll,  who  vowed  during  a  severe 
illness  that  if  he  were  restored  he  would  give  his  life 
to  missions.  This  society  labors  in  Africa  and  Java 
and  had  in  191 3  an  income  of  $30,000.  Most  im- 
portant among  the  remaining  Lutheran  societies  are 
that  of  Neuendettelsau  which  works  in  Kaiser  Wil- 
helmsland  in  New  Guinea,  and  also  in  Australia,  the 
Hanover  Society  with  stations  in  South  Africa,  and  the 
Bielefeld  Society   in   East  Africa. 

^  Before  leaving  this  brief  introduction 

German  _    ^    ° 

Missionary  to  the  missionary  labors  of  Germany, 

Scholarship.  ^^.^  ^^^^  allude  to  the  fine  service  paid 
by  various  Germans  in  the  field  of  missionary  literature. 
The  Germans  were  the  originators  of  the  scientific 
study  of  missions.  They  have  given  to  missions  its 
greatest  historian,  Doctor  Gustav  Warneck,  who  for 
many  years  occupied  at  the  University  of  Halle  the 
only  academic  chair  in  Christendom  then  devoted  to  the 
teaching  and  study  of  missions,  and  who  prepared 
monumental  volumes  discussing  his  beloved  theme. 
To  his  study  and  to  that  of  other  German  scholars  the 
Lutheran  Church  owes  much  of  that  sobriety  and 
thoroughness  with  which  its  mission  work  has  been 
done. 

Scandinavian  Societies. 

Though  the  pioneer  Lutheran  mission- 
aries, Zeigenbalg  and  Pliitschau,  were 
sent   to    India   by   Denmark,    missionary   activity   Ian- 


64  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

gulshed  in  Scandinavia  for  many  3'ears.  The  Danish 
Missionary  Society,  organized  in  1821,  sent  mission- 
aries to  the  Greenland  mission  and  a  few  to  the  work 
of  the  Basel  society  in  Africa.  In  1862  it  established 
missions  of  its  own  in  India  and  Northern  China.  In 
1 91 3   its   income  was  $125,000.. 

The  Noriuegian  Missionary  Society 
was  founded  in  1842  in  Stavanger  and 
consists  at  the  present  time  of  about  nine  hundred 
societies.  It  works  among  the  Zulus  in  South  Africa, 
in  Madagascar,  and  also  in  China.  In  191 3  its  in- 
come was  $234,000.  The  Norwegian  Church  Mis- 
sion was  organized  by  Bishop  Schreuder  in  1873. 
Its  field  is  in  South  Africa.  The  Norwegian  Li^theran 
China  Mission,  organized  in  1 890,  has  an  income  of 
$62,000. 

In  Sweden  there  are  various  Lutheran 
In    Sweden.  .    .  •      .•  -t-', 

missionary    organizations.      1  he    most 

important  are  the  Sivedish  National  Society,  which 
works  in  East  Africa  and  Central  India,  and  has  an 
income  of  $120,000,  and  the  Sivedish  Church  Mission 
whose  fields  are  in  South  Africa  and  East  India  and 
which  has  an  income  of  $88,000.  Among  the  smaller 
societies  are  the  Sivedish  Mission  in  China,  the 
Swedish  Mongol  Mission,  and  the  Jerusalem  Asso- 
ciation. 

One    of   the    interesting   characters    in 
A  Brave  Girl.         ,       ,  •  t     n         t        •  •    • 

the  history  ot    Scandinavian    missions 

was  a  young  Finnish  girl,  Maria  Mathsdotter,  by  name, 

who,   through   the   preaching  of  the   missionaries  had 


PIONEERS  AND  METHODS  65 

come    to    understand    the    need    of    her    people    for 

the  Gospel.     She  learned  Swedish  so  that  she  might 

speak  to  the  King  and  thereupon  in   1864  set  out  to 

walk  two  hundred  miles  to  Stockholm.     When  a  few 

days  later  she  started  back,  she  carried  with  her  enough 

money   to  build   a  children's  home  to  which  Finnish 

children  could   go   for  Christian   and  some   industrial 

instruction.     As  a   result  there   are  to-day  a   number 

of  such  homes  in  Finland. 

Among  the    most    popular    missionary 
Two   Friends.  ...,-,.  ,  ,  ^t  •      1 

societies  in  Denmark  and  JNorway  is  the 

Home  Mission  to  the  Santals,  established  in  1867  by  a 
Dane,  Hans  Peter  Borresen  and  a  Norwegian  Lars 
Olsen  Skrefsrud.  Lars  Skrefsrud  was  the  son  of  pious 
Christian  parents,  but  led  a  life  of  such  waywardness 
that  he  was  finally  confined  in  prison.  During  his 
term  of  two  years  he  was  thoroughly  converted 
and  determined  to  devote  his  life  when  he  should  be 
free  to  mission  work.  As  soon  as  he  was  released  he 
offered  himself  to  the  Norwegian  mission  in  Africa, 
but  the  committee  concluded  that  a  man  just  out  of 
prison  was  not  a  safe  agent.  He  then  applied  to 
Father  Gossner,  who  accepted  him  for  work  in  In- 
dia. In  the  training  school  he  became  acquainted  with 
Borresen,  and  so  close  was  their  friendship  that  when 
they  were  placed  in  different  stations  they  separated 
from  the  Gossner  mission  to  found  the  Home  Mission 
to  the  Santals,  which  is  supported  by  Danish  and  Nor- 
wegian Lutherans  in  all  parts  of  the  world. 


66  the  story  of  lutheran  missions 

Finnish,  Polish,  and  Other  Societies. 

Not  the  least  valuable  of  Lutheran  missionary  en- 
terprises is  that  of  little  Finland,  which  after  contrib- 
uting to  the  missionary  work  of  other  nations,  es- 
tablished in  1859  on  the  occasion  of  the  seven  hun- 
dredth anniversary  of  the  conversion  of  Finland  to 
Christianity  the  Finnish  Lutheran  Missionary  Society 
with  headquarters  at  Helsingfors,  In  1867  the  so- 
ciety began  its  own  mission  in  South  Africa,  and  later 
in  Japan.  Its  income  was  in  191 3  $72,000.  The 
Finnish  Lutheran  Gospel  Society  works  in  China. 

The  Lutherans  of  Poland  divide  their  contributions 
among  various  German  Lutheran  societies,  among 
them  the  Leipsic  and  Gossner  societies. 

The  Lutherans  of  Friesland,  a  province  of  Holland, 
contribute  to  the  work  of  the  Bremen  or  North  Ger- 
man Society. 

In  the  Netherlands  there  are  small  Lutheran  or- 
ganizations which  aid  in  the  work  of  the  German  mis- 
sionaries in  the  Dutch  East  Indies. 

American  Societies. 

The  missionary  work  of  the  American  Lutheran 
Church  is  accomplished  both  by  the  various  large  bod- 
ies and  by  organizations  within  the  synods  whose  sole 
purpose  is  missionary  work.  From  the  Norwegians 
and  Danes  in  America,  contributions  are  sent  to  the 
missionary  societies  of  the  fatherland,  such  as  the  Home 
Mission  to  the  Santals.    There  are  nine  American-Nor- 


PIONEERS  AND  METHODS  67 

wegian  organizations — the  United  Church,  the  Nor- 
wegian Synod,  the  Hague's  Synod,  the  Norwegian 
Free  Church,  the  Brethren  Synod,  the  EHing  Synod, 
the  Santal  Committee,  the  Zion  Society  and  the  In- 
tersynodical  Orient  Mission — which  in  19 1 5  contribu- 
ted $235,000,  an  average  of  sixty-nine  cents  per  mem- 
ber. The  General  Synod  contributed  in  the  same 
year  $117,000,  an  average  of  thirtj^-three  cents.  The 
General  Council  contributed  $119,000,  an  average  of 
twenty-four  cents.  The  United  Synod  in  the  South* 
contributed  $20,000,  an  average  of  forty  cents  per 
member.  The  Synodical  Conference  contributed 
$56,000,  an  average  of  six  cents  per  member.  Not 
included  in  the  above  figures  is  the  work  of  the  Syn- 
odical Conference  for  the  American  negro  which 
amounted  in  19 10-12  to  $66,000.  The  Joint  Synod 
of  Ohio  contributed  $16,800,  an  average  of  eleven 
cents  per  member.  The  Danish  Society  contributed 
$7,825,  an  average  of  fifty-five  cents  per  member.  The 
Iowa  Synod  contributed  $16,000.  It  is  estimated  that 
the  average  yearly  per  capita  contribution  of  Amer- 
ican Lutherans  to  missions  is  twenty-three  cents.  The 
fields  of  American  Lutheranism  include  Africa,  Mad- 
agascar, China,  India,  Japan,  the  East  Indies  and 
South  America. 

It  has  been  impossible  in  this  brief  account  to  give 
a  separate  place  to  the  work  of  women's  or  other 
auxiliary  societies,  which  have  contributed  so  largely 


*Contributions  not  reported  through  the  regular  treasurer 
bring  the  per  capita  contribution  to  fifty-three  cents. 


68  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

to  the  work  of  missions.  The  actual  financial  ad- 
ditions brought  by  these  societies  may  be  easily  com- 
puted, but  not  the  interest  which  they  have  roused, 
the  information  which  they  have  disseminated,  the 
prayers  which  they  have  offered.  May  they  long  con- 
tinue their  generous  work! 

Many  persons  and  some  churches  hold  the  opin- 
ion that  missionary  work  can  be  done  in  a  haphazard 
fashion,  each  man  following  what  he  believes  to  be 
the  divine  direction  within  him.  Devoted  men  who 
counted  their  lives  as  nothing  so  that  they  might  serve 
Christ  have  gone  to  preach  to  the  Hindu  without  un- 
derstanding his  language  or  being  able  to  speak  it  and 
have  counted  with  ill-founded  joy  thousands  of  con- 
verts who  had  in  reality  not  comprehended  a  word  of 
the  message.  The  coast  of  Africa  has  within  its  soil 
the  bodies  of  many  missionaries  who  alone,  unsupported 
by  home  supplies,  unfitted  for  their  task,  have  laid 
down  their  lives  in  a  glorious  but  useless  endeavor. 

Enterprises  of  this  sort  have  not  been  a  part  of 
missionary  work  in  the  Lutheran  Church,  which  be- 
lieves that  the  foundation  of  the  Indian  or  African 
Church  must  be  laid  surely  and  substantially,  no  mat- 
ter how  slowly,  that  adult  baptism  cannot  take  place 
without  understanding,  that  only  those  may  share  the 
communion  of  Christ's  Church  who  know  His  Gos- 
pel, and  that  with  the  precious  message  to  the  soul 
there  should  go  also  the  uplifting  of  the  body  so  that 
it   may   become    a   worthy   vessel. 


CHAPTER  III. 

The  Lutheran  Church  in  India 

The  Land. 

The    people 
The  religions 
The  Caste  System 
The   moral   condition 
The  English  in  India 
The   contrasts  of   India 
The   word    "heathen" 

The   German   Societies. 

Basel 

Gossner 

Leipsic 

Hermannsburg 

Breklum   or    Schleswig-Holstein 

The  Scandinavian  Societies. 

Home  Mission  to  the   Santals  _ 

Danish  Evangelical  Lutheran  Missionary  Society 
Evangelical  National  Missionary  Society  of  Sweden 
The   Church  of   Sweden  Mission 

The   American    Societies. 

The   beginnings 

The  General   Synod 

The    General    Council 

The  Missouri   Synod 

The  Joint  Synod   of  Ohio 

The   Synod   of   Iowa 

The  American   Danes,   Norwegians   and   Swedes. 

Conclusion. 


Chapter  III. 

THE  LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  INDIA 

The  pen  seems  to  falter  before  the  task 
of  describing  India,  with  its  varied 
landscapes,  its  dense  population,  its  fascinating  his- 
tory, its  great  learning,  its  dark  ignorance.  Its  area 
is  one  million  eight  hundred  thousand  square  miles, 
which  is  seven  times  that  of  the  German  Empire  and 
fifteen  times  that  of  the  British  Isles.  From  north  to 
south  it  measures  about  one  thousand  nine  hundred 
miles  and  the  distance  across  the  upper  part  of  its 
great  triangle  is  about  the  same.  In  the  north  the 
high  wall  of  the  Himalaya  Mountains  separates  it 
from  the  rest  of  Asia;  below  lies  the  broad  valley  of 
the  Ganges  River;  still  farther  to  the  south  a  high 
table-land.  There  are  all  varieties  of  temperature, 
climate  and  landscape. 

,     „  Even  more  varied  than  the  temperature 

The  People.  ,    ..       ,      j  •       ,  ,     • 

and   the   landscape   is  the   population, 

which    numbers    about    three    hundred    and    twenty 

millions  or  about  one  fifth  of  the  population  of  the 

globe.     The  people  are  divided  chiefly  into  two  large 

groups,  the  Aryans  who  live  for  the  most  part  in  the 

north  and    who    have  continued    the    ancient    Indian 

civilization,  and  the  Dravidians  in  the  south  who  in 


72  THE  STORY  OP  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

development  belong  among  the  "nature  peoples."  In 
addition  there  are  about  sixty-five  million  Mohamme- 
dans, of  many  races  and  nations,  w^hose  religion  is  a 
uniting  bond.  The  Indians  speak  in  all  one  hundred 
and  forty-seven  languages  and  dialects. 

The  chief  religion  of  India  is  thus  de- 
The    Religions,    scribed   by   Doctor  Warneck.      "Two 

hundred  and  eight  millions  have  been 
won  by  Brahmanical  Hinduism,  which  combines  the 
most  varied  forms  from  the  sublimest  philosophy  to 
the  coarsest  idolatry,  profound  speculations  and  the 
wildest  fantasies,  even  childish  absurdities,  moral 
truths  and  immoral  myths  in  wonderful  mixture." 
The  Indian  believes  in  so  many  gods  that  it  is  difficult 
for  him  to  conceive  of  one  God.  Next  to  Brahman- 
ism  in  number  of  adherents  comes  Mohammedanism 
and  below  it  the  demon  worship  of  the  mountain 
tribes. 

In  addition  to  the  many  perpendicular 
e      as  e  divisions   of   the   people   into   religious 

sects,  there  are  the  horizontal  divisions 
of  caste.  This  strange  institution  from  which  emanci- 
pation is  almost  impossible  is  an  immeasurable  hind- 
rance to  Christian  missions.  We  have  been  taught 
that  there  are  four  castes,  (i)  priests,  (2)  warriors, 
(3)  merchants  and  sudra,  including  peasants,  arti- 
sans and  servants,  and  (4)  outcastes.  But  these  are 
only  general  divisions.  In  South  India  there  arc  said 
to  be  nineteen  thousand  caste  divisions.     Every  trade 


t  * 


CHAPEL   OF   LEPER  ASYLUM,    KODUR,   INDIA.      (JOINT   SYNOD 
OF   OHIO) 


INMATES    OF    LEPER    ASYLUM. 


THE  LUTHERAN    CHURCH    IN    INDIA  To 

becomes   a   caste,   and   even   the   Christian    Church   is 

regarded  as  a  caste. 

^,     .,      ,  ^"The  moral  condition  of  the  people 

The   Lloral  ^     ^ 

Condition  should   be   described  as  one  of  apathy 

of  India.  Qj.  g^.gj^  deadness  rather    than   as   one 

of  violent  and  malignant  opposition  to  virtue.  Their 
lives  are  destitute  of  stimulus  and  incentive.  Their 
religion  furnishes  no  motive  for  the  present  and  in- 
cites no  aspiration  for  the  future.  The  thought  of 
bettering  their  own  condition  or  of  doing  aught  to 
benefit  another's  is  foreign  to  their  minds.  The  Ori- 
ental doctrine  of  fate  is  ever  present  to  quench  all  up- 
ward endeavor.  It  is  their  destiny  to  be  what  and 
as  they  are,  and  who  are  they  to  contend  with  destiny? 
Their  chief  faults  are  licentiousness  and  lack  of  truth- 
fulness. Intemperance  is  not  usually  a  vice  of  the 
Hindu  people,  though  in  recent  years  the  introduc- 
tion of  cheap  foreign  liquors,  and  the  course  of  the 
government  in  licensing  drinking-places,  has  stimu- 
lated the  use  of  intoxicating  liquor  among  all  classes. 
The  disposition  of  the  people  is  mild,  and  crimes  are 
no  more  common  among  them  than  among  the  people 
of  other  races." 

Of  the  evils  of  child  marriage  and  the  wrongs  of 
widowhood  we  need  take  no  space  to  tell.  To  him 
who  does  not  believe  in  missions,  who  holds  that  for 
India  its  native  religions  are  best,  its  own  thought 
sufficient,  it  is  only  necessary  to  point  to  the  two 
million  wives  under  ten  years  of  age  or  to  the  evils  of 


*Encyclopedia  of  Missions;     "'Indi?", 


74  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

the    temple    system.     India   still    requires    help    from 
without  and  from  above. 

About  the  year  looo  a  Mohammedan 
hi^'lndK^'^''  conqueror  entered  India  from  Afgha- 
nistan and  gradually  all  India  was 
brought  under  Moslem  control.  There  was  continual 
strife,  however,  between  the  Moslems  and  the  original 
Hindus  who,  here  and  there,  were  able  to  rise  against 
the  galling  rule  of  their  conquerors.  Early  in  the 
Seventeenth  Century  the  English  came  to  India  first 
as  humble  merchants,  then  as  rulers.  When  in  1857 
the  India  mutiny,  fomented  by  dispossessed  native 
princes,  shook  the  power  of  the  great  East  India  Com- 
pany, the  English  government  took  the  place  of  the 
company  and  India  became  British  territory. 

To-day  the  fourteen  provinces,  in  which  are 
six  hundred  and  seventy-five  native  states,  are  British 
soil.  Whatever  we  may  think  the  right  or  wrong  of  the 
power  by  which  Great  Britain  has  seized  and  held  her 
vast  possessions,  we  can  feel  only  admiration  for  her 
colonial  administration.  She  has  come  to  feel  toward 
India  a  sense  of  duty;  she  has  governed  justly;  she  has 
established  good  order  and  peace.  She  has  taken  care  of 
the  sick,  has  educated  the  young  and  has  feed  the  starv- 
ing in  time  of  famine.  She  has,  best  of  all,  made  it 
possible  for  the  Christian  Church  to  do  its  great  work. 
The  contrasts  of  India  are  described 
The  Contrasts  ^  ^  ^^,^-^^^  -^  ^j.^  Missionary  Witness. 
of  India.  •  ,       -^  . 

"This  is  a  land  of  blazing  light,  and 

yet,  withal,  the  land  of  densest  darkness.     There  is 


THE  LUTHERAN    CHURCH   IN   INDIA  75 

wonderful  beauty  with  repulsive  ugliness.  A  land 
of  plenty,  full  of  penury.  Ultra  cleanliness  and  un- 
mentionable filthiness.  There  is  kindness  to  all  crea- 
tures, combined  with  hardest  cruelty.  All  life  held 
sacred  in  a  land  of  murders.  A  people  of  mild  speech 
given  to  violent  language.  Proud  of  learning  and 
sunken  in  ignorance.  Seekers  for  merit,  resigned  to 
fate.  Unbelieving  and  full  of  cruelty.  Belief  in  one 
god  co-existent  with  the  worship  of  330,000,000  dei- 
ties. Intensely  religious,  yet  destitute  of  piety.  Al- 
together, India  is  lost  humanity  gone  to  seed ;  a  dis- 
eased degenerate  herb  become  a  noxious  weed.  At 
least  this  is  the  condition  of  her  society." 
The  Word  ^^  is  characteristic  of  the  wider  charity 

"heathen".  and  also  the  wider  knowledge  of  our 

time,  that  we  speak  of  unchristianized  nations  as 
"non-Christians"  rather  than  as  "heathen,"  a  term 
which,  especially  in  India,  has  given  ofifense.  The 
exchange  of  terms  is  one  greatly  to  be  desired,  since 
it  removes  a  cause  of  ofiEense  and  also  makes  clearer 
than  ever  the  power  of  the  Gospel  to  enlighten  and  to 
bless.  For  the  darkness  and  misery  of  India  there 
is  one  hope  of  change — that  she  may  cease  to  be  "non- 
Christian". 

To  India  Lutherans  were,  as  we  have  seen,  the 
first  of  the  Protestant  Churches  to  carry  the  Gospel. 
Since  the  landing  of  Ziegenbalg  and  Pliitschau  in 
Tranquebar,  eighty-six  years  before  the  Baptist  Carey 
went  to  Bengal,  Lutherans  have  been  preaching  and 
teaching  according  to  the  command  of  their  Master. 


76  the  story  of  lutheran  missions 

German  Societies. 

The  Use  We  shall  consider  first  of  all  the  Ger- 

of  Maps.  lyijvn     missionary    societies    and     their 

labors.  Before  beginning  the  study  of  any  particular 
field  the  reader  should  refer  to  the  brief  account 
of  the  origin  and  history  of  these  societies  in 
Chapter  II.  He  should  also  refer  constantly  to  the 
map,  marking,  if  possible,  on  a  map  of  his  own  the 
position  of  each  foreign  field.  Thus  he  will  add 
not  only  accuracy  but  interest  to  his  missionary  study. 

A  Gift  for  T]\e  Basel  Society^  which  is,  it  should 

Missions.  ^g  remembered,  not  wholly  Lutheran 

in  organization,  support,  or  workers,  had  already  es- 
tablished missions  in  other  places  when,  in  1834,  it 
received  a  gift  of  $10,000  from  the  Prince  of  Schon- 
berg  v/ith  the  stipulation  that  it  should  start  a  mis- 
sion in  a  new  place.  The  spot  selected  was  the  Mala- 
bar district  on  the  west  coast  of  India  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  peninsula  from  Tranquebar  and 
thither  three   missionaries   were  promptly  sent. 

The  country  which  they  had  selected 

Hard  Hearts  in  beautiful    and    fertile,    but    the 

a  Fertile  Land.  ^  _  ' 

hearts   of   the    inhabitants   were   hard 

soil.     A  proverb  expressed  their  carelessness  and  in- 

difiference:   "What   can   man   do?      Idleness   is   good, 

sleep  is  better,  death  is  best  of  all."     In  the  mission 

field   six   different   languages   were   spoken,    and   thus 

long   study    and    much    literary   work   were    required 

before  permanent  results  could  be  hoped  for. 


THE  LUTHERAN   CHURCH   IN   INDIA  77 

Establishing  their  first  station  at  Telicheri  the  mis- 
sionaries worked  out  into  the  surrounding  country. 
As  soon  as  possible  they  began  to  preach,  to  establish 
schools  and  to  translate  the  Bible  into  the  native 
tongues. 

Not  the  least  of  their  difficulties  was 
An  Experiment,      i      i     ,       r       .    i       .    .  •      •   i 

the  lack  oi  tried  missionary  principles. 

One  worker  was  convinced  that  the  only  way  to  im- 
press the  heathen  was  to  live  their  life  with  them.  Per- 
suading other  new  missionaries  to  his  way  of  thinking, 
he  left  the  mission  buildings  and  established  himself 
with  thirty  Hindu  boys  in  a  little  hut.  The  floor 
served  for  chairs  and  table  and  the  missionary  ate 
with  his  pupils  three  times  a  day  their  meal  of  rice. 
An  illness  brought  him  to  his  senses  and  he  returned 
to  a  sane  way  of  living. 

With  such  devotion  and  diligence  did  the  Basel 
missionaries  labor  that  when  one  of  the  earliest  work- 
ers was  married  eight  years  after  the  establishment 
of  the  mission  one  hundred  and  twenty  Christians 
came  to  the  wedding.  Spreading  northward  into  the 
Bombay  Presidency  the  mission  had  established  by 
1 91 3  twenty-six  stations  with  sixty  missionaries  and 
not  less  than  twenty  thousand  Christians. 
A  Christian  One  of  the  chief  stations  is  at  Manga- 

Settlement.  lore.     Outside  the  town    is    Balmatta 

Hill  round  the  base  of  which  lies  a  Christian  village. 
Here  live  the  missionaries  and  their  wives,  here  are 
schools,  here  a  theological  seminary  for  the  training 
of  native  workers.     Near  by  is  an  almshouse;  in  this 


1^  THE  STORY  OP  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

building  weavers  ply  their  trade;  yonder  there  is  a 
printing  establishment;  here  are  stores,  a  bakery,  a 
carpenter  shop.  Crowning  all,  there  stands  on  the 
hill  top  the  Church  of  Peace. 

The  famous  industrial  work  of  the 
Missionaries  Basel  Society  is  actively  promoted. 
Provide  Work  Here  idle  hands  are  trained  to  work, 
for  Converts?        ,  ,  111  1  r 

here  those  who  have  been  makers  or 

wine  are  given  an  occupation  better  suited  to  a 
Christian  profession,  here  the  very  poor  are  able  to 
earn  their  livings.  There  is  a  difference  of  opinion 
about  the  value  of  industrial  work  in  connection  with 
missions,  some  students  believing  that  the  spiritual 
work  is  hampered  and  confused  by  this  connection  with 
commercial  life  and  that  undesirable  and  unfaithful 
converts  are  attracted  by  the  prospect  of  having  work 
to  do.  This  danger,  however,  the  Basel  Mission  seems 
to  have  avoided.  An  unprejudiced  observer  writes: 
"Even  those  who  for  these  reasons  believe  that  only 
necessity  will  justify  the  starting  of  mission  indus- 
tries, have  to  admit  that  this  Basel  work  has  made  a 
real  contribution  to  economic  progress  and  to  the 
dignifying  of  labor  as  v/orthy  of  a  Christian."  It 
is  interesting  to  note  that  in  the  Basel  weaving  shop 
at  Mangalore  was  first  made  khaki  cloth,  vvhich  now 
covers  so  many  million  soldiers. 

The  most  famous  of  the  Basel  missionaries  in  India 
was  Doctor  Gundert,  who  labored  for  more  than 
twenty  years,  then  returning  to  the  Fatherland  as- 
sumed the  work  left  by  Doctor  Barth,  another  Lu- 


THE  LUTHERAN   CHURCH   IN   INDIA  79 

theran  director  of  the  Basel  Society.  His  remaining 
years  were  filled  with  labor  for  the  cause  which  he 
loved,  writing,  speaking  and  editing  missionary  jour- 
nals. His  wife,  Julia,  was  the  first  woman  missionary 
sent  out  by  the  Basel  Society. 

A  Stirring  The  Gossner  Mission  was  founded  in 

Charge.  1S44.  when  Pastor  Gossner  sent  four 

missionaries  to  India  with  the  instructions,  "Believe, 
hope,  love,  pray,  burn,  waken  the  dead!  Hold  fast 
by  prayer !  Wrestle  like  Jacob !  Up,  up  my  brethren ! 
The  Lord  is  coming  and  to  everj'one  he  will  say, 
'Where  hast  thou  left  the  souls  of  these  heathen  ?'  " 

Arriving  at  Calcutta  the  first  group  of  missionar- 
ies endeavored  to  establish  a  colony  but  were  not 
successful.  They  saw  among  the  coolies  on  the  city 
streets,  many  men  of  a  distinct  type  and  discovered 
that  they  were  Kols.  Among  these  people,  once  of  a 
better  standing,  but  now  degraded  and  oppressed,  the 
Gossner  missionaries  determined  to  set  to  work. 
Discourage-  Selecting  the  capital  of  the  local  gov- 

"lent.  ernment,   Ranchi,   for  their  headquar- 

ters they  named  the  spot  where  they  settled  Bethesda. 
For  five  years  they  worked  without  gaining  a  single 
convert.  Utterly  discouraged  they  asked  for  per- 
mission to  seek  another  field.  To  this  request  Pastor 
Gossner  answered  as  follows:  "Whether  the  Kols 
will  be  converted  or  not  is  the  same  to  you.  If  they 
will  not  accept  the  Word  they  must  hear  it  to  their 
condemnation.  Your  duty  is  to  pray  and  preach  to 
them.     We  at  home  will  also  pray  more  earnestly." 


80  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

Presently  four  natives  were  baptized, 
Reward.  ,  ••111 

Others  came  to  inquire,  and  a  church 

was  built.  When  it  was  begun  there  were  sixty  mem- 
bers of  the  congregation ;  when  it  was  completed  there 
were  three  hundred.  So  thoroughly  was  the  work  of 
evangelization  done,  so  well  grounded  were  these 
degraded  people  in  the  faith,  that  in  1857  ^^  the 
time  of  the  great  mutiny  when  the  natives  of  India 
rose  against  the  English  the  nine  hundred  adherents 
of  the  Gossner  mission  refused  to  give  up  that  faith 
to  which  they  had  been  baptized.  Here  is  an  extra- 
ordinary episode  in  missionary  history.  In  1845  the 
deepest  degradation,  misery  and  superstition,  which 
included  the  worship  of  idols  and  demons  and  even 
the  recollection  of  the  sacrifice  of  living  beings — in 
1857   the   most  exalted   Christian   faith   and   courage. 

From  now  on  the  mission  prospered  and  its  converts 
multiplied.  Presently  work  was  begun  among  the 
Hindus  and  Mohammedans  in  the  Ganges  Valley 
with  a  station  at  Ghazipur. 

A  visitor  to  Ranchi  has  written  down  some  of  his 
impressions  of  the  chief  station  of  the  Gossner  mis- 
sion. 

T  .  t    "In  Ranchi  I  could  have  spent  a  month 

Impressions    of        _  *^ 

a   Mission  with   the  greatest   delight,   there  is  so 

Station.  much  to  see  and  to  hear.     There  is  a 

Christian  hostel  here  on  the  mission  premises,  which 
seems  to  be  a  great  power  for  good.  It  is  a  large 
square  courtyard  with  open  rooms  all  around,  in  which 
any  Christians  are  allowed  to  put  up  who  may  be  in 


THE  LUTHERAN   CHURCH   IN   INDIA  81 

from  the  district  on  business;  they  get  their  firewood 
free,  and  the  only  condition  of  admittance  is  that  they 
attend  morning  and  evening  worship.  Occasionally 
heathen  people  stop  there  too.  The  idea  is  a  capital 
one,  as  it  keeps  the  missionaries  in  touch  with  their 
native  converts  in  a  way  which  otherwise  it  would 
be  very  difficult  to  accomplish.  We  visited  the  print- 
ing press  and  the  boys'  and  girls'  schools.  I  was 
particularly  struck  by  tho  bright  little  girls,  who 
answered  so  intelligently  when  I  questioned  them, 
and  whose  part-singing  was  beautiful.  The  Kols 
are  naturally  musical,  their  ear  being,  as  a  rule,  very 
good.  The  girls  sang  softly  and  sweetly ;  some  of  them 
even  sang  alone  for  me.  They  were  being  taught  by 
a  native  v/ho  seemed  to  have  a  great  deal  of  musical 
talent;  he  had  just  picked  up  a  new  thing  himself — by 
ear,  I  suppose — and  was  putting  it  to  notes  for  his 
girls. 

"I  was  greatly  struck  by  the  practical  work  being 
done  by  these  German  missionaries.  The  child'-cn 
v/ere  being  taught  in  an  elementary  and  practical  man- 
ner suitable  to  their  village  life.  For  instance,  the 
girls  were  given  a  sum;  one  stated  it  on  the  black- 
board, another  worked  it  out  in  her  head  and  gave  the 
answer,  and  then  both  had  a  pair  of  scales  and  weights 
with  some  sand,  and  before  the  others  they  weighed 
out  the  amount  which,  according  to  the  sum,  they 
were  entitled  to.  In  the  same  practical  way  the  girls 
were  taught  cooking  and  other  things  which  would 
be  useful  to  them  as  the  wives  of  cotmtry  villagers. 


82  THE  STORY  OP  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

"I  was  taken  to  see  the  theological  seminary  and 
bo3's'  boarding  school,  and  the  fine  church,  where  about 
eight  hundred  of  the  native  congregation  meet  every 
Sunday  for  the  worship  of  the  true  God ;  and  yet 
we  are  told  that  missions  are  a  failure! 

"One  very  striking  thing  in  the  seminary  was  the 
singing  class;  I  was  amazed  at  the  splendid  way  in 
which  they  rendered  selections  from  Handel's  'Mes- 
siah'." 

One  of  the  chief  enterprises  of  the 
Gossner  Mission  is  its  famous  leper 
asylum  at  Purulia,  The  asylum  was  founded  by  Mis- 
sionary Uffman  in  1888,  the  immediate  occasion  being 
the  driving  of  a  number  of  poor  lepers  from  their 
miserable  huts.  The  missionary  offered  them  a  refuge 
in  his  compound  and  there  relieved  them  as  much  as 
possible.  From  this  small  beginning  has  grown  the 
largest  and  finest  institution  of  its  kind  in  India. 
There  is  a  m.odel  village  on  a  tract  of  fifty  acres  of 
evergreen  woods,  with  sixty  spacious  houses,  offices, 
dispensaries,  a  hospital,  prayer  rooms  and  a  lofty 
Lutheran  church.  Four-fifths  of  the  inhabitants  are 
Christians.  The  medical  treatment  is  that  prescribed 
by  the  latest  investigations  of  scientific  men  who  have 
discovered  the  blessed  fact  that  the  prevention  of 
leprosy  for  the  children  of  lepers  is  possible  and  in- 
expensive. 

„         .  A  visitor   describes   thus   a   Christmas 

Hope    in 

the   Midst  celebration.     "The  lepers  came  march- 

of  Misery.  jj^g  ^^^  singing  hymns  and  playing  in- 

struments.    Some  limp  slowly,  some  blind  ones  are  led 


THE  LUTHERAN   CHURCH   IN   INDIA  83 

by  their  comrades,  some  are  carried.  At  last  all  are 
seated  in  the  sunshine.  There  were  knitted  garments, 
mufflers,  scrapbooks,  toys,  something  for  everybody, 
and  how  grateful  they  were!  But  when  we  saw  the 
disfigured  hands  held  out  for  the  gifts,  or  little  leper 
girls  caressing  their  new  dolls,  our  hearts  were  deeply 
touched,  and  we  could  hear  those  leper  boys  making 
music  with  their  new  instruments  almost  through  the 
whole  night. 

"Hear  this  grateful  letter  from  a  leper  saint.  'Lady, 
Peace!  j'our  love-heart  is  so  great  that  it  reached  this 
leper  village — reached  this  very  place.  I  being  Guoi 
Aing,  have  received  from  you  a  bed's  wadded  quilt. 
In  coldest  weather,  covered  at  night,  my  body  will  have 
warmth,  will  have  gladness.  Alas,  the  wideness  of  the 
world  prevents  us  seeing  each  other  face  to  face,  but 
wait  until  the  last  day,  when  with  the  Lord  we  meet 
together  in  heaven's  clouds — then  what  else  can  I 
utter  but  a  whole-hearted  mouthful  of  thanks?  You 
will  want  to  know  what  my  body  is  like — there  is  no 
wellness  in  it.  No  feet,  no  hands,  no  sight,  no  feel- 
ing; outside  body  greatly  distressed,  but  inside  heart 
is  greatest  peace,  for  the  inside  heart  has  hopes.  What 
hopes?  Hopes  of  everlasting  blessedness,  because  of 
God's  love  and  because  of  the  Savior's  grace.  These 
words  are  from  Guoi  Aing's  mouth.  The  honorable 
pencil-person  is  Dian  Sister.' 

"Beyond  question  this  work  at  Purulia  is  one  of 
the  most  successful  concrete  results  of  Christian  mis- 
sions that  the  world  can  show." 


84  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

A  Costly  The     founder,     Missionary     UfEman, 

Sacrifice.  paid   a  costly  sacrifice  of   devotion  to 

tlie  cause  which  he  loved  in  the  death  of  his  oldest 
daughter  from  leprosy.  Among  the  workers  for  the 
lepers  was  the  Rev.  F.  P.  Hahn,  who  gave  forty-two 
years  of  labor  in  the  mission,  dying  in  igio.  He  had 
been  awarded,  as  have  been  other  Lutheran  mission- 
aries, the  Kaiser-i-Hind  golden  medal,  which  the  Brit- 
ish government  bestows  only  upon  those  who  have 
rendered  distinguished  service  in  humanitarian  causes. 
The  reports  of  the  Gossner  Society  for  1913  re- 
corded fifty  German  missionaries  and  seventy-one 
thousand  Christians.  The  Gossner  mission  is  the 
largest  of  the  Lutheran  enterprises  in  India. 
„,      „  ,    The  Danish  Halle  mission  among  the 

of  God  Tamils     in     Tranquebar     had     been 

Unheeded.  founded  by  Ziegenbalg  and  Pliitschau 

as  we  have  seen.  Then  during  a  period  of  unbelief 
at  home,  this  noble  mission  declined.  It  was  no  won- 
der that  the  command  of  God  was  forgotten  when  a 
writer  upon  ecclesiastical  affairs  could  express  himself 
thus:  "The  Church  of  Christ  is  not  suited  to  such 
nations  as  the  East  Indians,  the  Greenlanders,  the 
Laplanders,  and  the  Esquimaux.  These  people  be- 
long to  the  race  of  apes  and  it  is  useless  to  preach  the 
Gospel  to  them  until  they  become  men." 

At  the  time  of  the  one-hundreth  an- 
A  Decline.  .  ^     ,       ^         ,.  ^     , 

niversary  of  the  foundmg  of  the  mis- 
sion, Madras,  Cuddalore,  Tanjore  and  Trichinopoli 
had  been  allowed  to  pass  into  the  hands  of  English 


THE  LUTHERAN   CHURCH   IN  INDIA  85 

missionaries,  smaller  stations  had  ceased  to  be  occupied 
at  all,  and  the  Danish  Halle  Society  was  limited  to 
work  at  Tranquebar  and  Poriear.  In  1825  a  royal 
command  put  an  end  officially  to  the  mission. 

In  1837  there  died  the  last  Danish  Halle  mission- 
ary, Kemerer  by  name,  who  bewailed  upon  his  death 
bed  the  sad  condition  which  he  left.  But  the  church 
which  he  loved  was  not  to  remain  without  witnesses. 
The  Leipsic  Society,  whose  origin  we  have  described 
above,  sent  to  Tranquebar  in  1840  John  Henry  Charles 
Cordes,  who  was  a  son-in-law  of  Kemerer. 
A  Single  Alone,   Cordes  set  to  work.     Feeling 

Witness.  the   need   of   native   helpers   he   began 

once  more  a  training  school  for  them  at  Poriear.  When 
in  1845  England  bought  Tranquebar  he  saved  the  mis- 
sion to  the  Lutheran  Church.  At  first  the  circum- 
stances under  vrhich  Cordes  labored  were  dishearten- 
ing in  the  extreme.  Then  two  missionaries,  Ochs  and 
Schwartz  arrived.  A  third  station  at  Majaweram, 
begun  and  given  up  by  the  English,  was  incorporated. 
A  Delicate  I"  1 846  several  hundred  Tamils  from 

Question.  Madras  turned  from  the  mission  of  the 

Church  of  England  into  the  mission  of  the  Leipsic 
Society  on  account  of  caste  difficulties.  One  of  the 
most  delicate  questions  which  must  be  met  by  mission- 
ary policy  in  India  is  that  of  caste.  It  has  been  the  pol- 
icy of  most  churches  to  decline  to  recognize  that  which 
is  so  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  Christian  religion. 
The  policy  of  the  Leipsic  missionaries  has  been  to 
ignore  the  question,  trusting  to  the  purifying  and  up- 


86  THE  STORY  OP  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

lifting  effect  of  the  Gospel  eventually  to  solve  the 
problem. 

Qj,  Gradually    under    Missionary    Cordes 

Citadels  and   his    successors    some    of    the    old 

Retaken.  ^^^j^  ^f  ^^^  Danish-Halle  Mission  vv^as 

resumed  and  nev\^  stations  were  established.  Work 
was  begun  once  more  in  Madras,  where  Schultze  had 
labored.  Cumbaconam,  where  Christian  Frederick 
Schwartz  had  preached,  where  ten  thousand  heathen 
priests  were  supported  by  the  populace,  where  heathen 
temple  touched  heathen  temple,  heard  again  the  Gospel, 
preached  now  by  another  Schwartz.  In  Sidabarum 
where  the  natives  declared:  "Christians  may  not  live 
here;  the  God  Siva  will  not  endure  it,"  the  Leipsic 
missionaries  won  seven  hundred  converts. 

For  more  than  thirty  years  Cordes  worked  in  India 
and  until  his  death  in  1892,  fifty  years  after  he  had 
been  ordained  as  a  missionary,  he  busied  himself  with 
missionary  affairs. 

Brotherly  The  Leipsic  Society  is  famous  for  the 

Support.  thoroughness  and  solidity  of  its  work. 

Its  last  report  gives  twenty-four  main  stations  which 
lie  chiefly  in  the  districts  of  Trichinopoli,  Tanjore, 
Coimbatore  and  Madura.  It  has  also  small  missions 
in  Rangoon,  Penang  and  Colombo  for  the  sake  of  the 
Tamil  Christians  who  have  emigrated  to  these  places. 
In  the  southern  part  of  its  territory  it  is  aided  by  the 
Swedish  Church  Mission.  Together  the  Leipsic  Mis- 
sion and  the  Swedish  Church  Mission  have  fifty-eight 


THE  LUTHERAN   CHURCH   IN   INDIA  87 

missionaries  at  work.  There  is  a  Christian  com- 
munity of  twenty-two  thousand  and  there  arc  fourteen 
thousand  pupils  in  the  scliools. 

The  following  description  given  by  a  young  Leipsic 
missionary  in  1 890  indicates  at  the  same  time  the 
enormous  task  before  the  Church  and  the  courage  with 
with  which  the  scattered  workers  are  endeavoring  to 
solve  it. 

A  Great  "On  the  evening  of  November  5th  we 

Festival.  went  by  rail  together  to  Majaweram, 

in  order  to  celebrate  Brother  Meyner's  wedding.  This 
fell  just  in  the  time  of  the  great  Bathing  Festival  to 
which  as  many  as  fifty  to  sixty  thousand  assemble.  On 
the  chief  day  we  went  to  the  bathing-place,  and  looked 
at  the  matter  a  little  more  closely.  There  was  a 
tumultuous  throng;  hardly  to  be  penetrated.  We  were 
the  only  white  faces  among  all  these  dusky  multitudes. 
The  best  place  for  viewing  the  whole  afiEair  appeared 
to  be  the  flat  roof  of  the  idol  temple.  We  climbed  up 
to  it  by  a  ladder,  without  any  opposition.  From  here 
we  could  overlook  the  human  masses;  they  stood  close 
packed  together,  some  bathing,  some  chatting,  etc.  We 
saw  also  how  they  were  carrying  about  different  idols, 
which  were  adorned  with  gold,  silver  and  precious 
stones.  All  were  greeted  by  the  crowd  with  uplifted 
hands  and  loud  acclaims.  In  view  of  this  our  hearts 
might  well  sink,  as  we  beheld  heathenism  yet  sub- 
sisting in  its  full,  unbroken  might.  If  we  did  not 
know  that  God's  truth  gains  the  victory,  we  should 
despair  of  the  possibility  that  India  will  ever  be  con- 


88  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

verted.  It  is  an  almost  impregnable  citadel  of  Satan, 
and  the  individual  mission  stations  are  lik?  oases  in 
the  waste,  and  the  individual  missionary  is  as  a  drop 
in  the  ocean.  For  instance,  in  each  of  such  cities  as 
Sidabarum,  Cuddalore,  Cumbaconam,  etc.,  of  forty 
or  fifty  thousand  inhabitants,  there  is  only  a  single  mis- 
sionary! What  can  a  single  man  effect  over  against 
such  masses?  Even  yet  it  is  only  a  siege  from  with- 
out— we  have  not  yet  made  our  way  into  the  interior 
of  the  fortress.  Nevertheless  we  will  not  therefore 
despond,  but  with  fresh  courage  attack  the  task  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord — you  at  home  with  prayer  and  gifts, 
we  in  the  land  itself  by  preaching  the  Gospel  to  the 
poor,  blinded  people,  and  attracting  such  as  are  willing 
to  let  themselves  be  saved.  We  know  that  the  Lord 
by  little  can  accomplish  much.  But  Thou,  O  Lord 
Jesus,  accept  our  poor,  weak  will,  our  slender  strength, 
take  also  the  offer  of  our  youth,  and  fashion  us  into 
men,  and  into  instruments  of  Thy  mercy!  Do  Thou 
Th}'self  fulfill  Thy  work  in  power  and  bring  hither 
to  Thy  flock  them  that  are  scattered  abroad  in  the 
world,  so  that  Thou  canst  soon  appear  in  Thy  glory 
and  conduct  us  out  of  the  conflict  and  strife  of  time 
into  Thy  kingdom  of  peace !    Amen." 

A  quarter  of  a  century  has  changed  greatly  the 
situation  in  India.  The  siege  has  advanced  nobly  and 
many  fortresses  have  been  taken. 

Another  Brave  The  station  of  the  Hermannsburg  So- 
Record.  ciety  in  India  is  in  the  southern  part 

of  Telugu  land  in  the  Presidency  of  Madras  and  the 


THE  LUTHaUN   CHURCH   IN   INDIA  89 

district  of  Nellore.  This  mission  has  a  history  of 
bitter  opposition  from  the  natives  and  cruel  sufferings 
from  cholera,  but  its  workers  have  bravely  persisted, 
longing  for  a  larger  force.  After  fifty  years  of  work 
they  write  hopefully:  "Our  work  in  the  Telugu  mis- 
sion is  a  blessed  one.  The  plot  is  small,  but  it  will 
be  a  great  harvest  field.  Our  preaching  meets  with 
great  opposition,  but  opposition  is  better  than  a  dull 
indifference.  Had  we  but  the  means  to  offer  salva- 
tion to  the  pariahs  they  would  come  in  throngs." 

After  fifty  years  the  mission  reports  a  staff  of  fifteen 
missionaries  in  twenty  stations  and  a  Christian  com- 
munity of  more  than  three  thousand.  A  leper  asylum 
is  one  of  its  enterprises. 

A  Promising-  The  last  of  the  German  missionary 
Field.  societies  to  establish   itself  in   India  is 

the  Breklum  or  Schlesivig-Holstein  Society.  It  had 
been  recommended  to  work  in  the  Bastar  land,  but 
the  king  refused  to  allow  the  missionaries  to  stay  and 
they  went  therefore  to  Salur  in  1883.  Though  the 
mission  is  still  young,  it  provides  for  all  varieties  of 
missionary  work,  its  schools  are  first-class,  it  has  es- 
tablished a  training  school  for  native  workers  and  a 
leper  asylum  and  deaconesses  are  in  charge  of  Zenana 
work. 

The  Breklum  Mission  lies  partly  in  high  land 
where  the  temperature  is  that  of  Europe.  Here  in  the 
hills  the  various  popular  religious  cults  of  India  had 
not  penetrated ;  the  inhabitants  were  demon  worship- 
ers.    Among  them  the  Gospel  has  been  received.     To 


90  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

the  missionaries  it  seems  that  dawn  is  at  hand;  in  the 
words  of  one,  "there  is  throughout  the  land  a  rustling 
as  though  rain  is  coming." 

In  19 1 3  the  mission  reported  twenty-seven  German 
missionaries  and  sixteen  thousand  five  hundred  con- 
verts. 

Work  It  is  with  a  sad  heart  that  the  lover 

Interrupted.  of  missions  contemplates  the  condition 
of  German  missions  in  India  to-day.  Instead  of  the 
longed-for  and  expected  harvest  there  is  blight  and 
desolation;  instead  of  plenteous  rain  there  is  drought. 
These  Germans,  pious,  diligent  and  successful,  find 
drawn  across  the  history  of  their  work  a  deeper  rift 
than  that  which  was  drawn  by  the  mutiny  of  '57. 
Removed  from  their  missions  and  either  held  as  prison- 
ers of  war  or  returned  to  Germany,  they  watch  with 
distress  as  the  labor  of  years  is  disastrously  halted. 
The  Basel  mission  which  is  partly  manned  by  Swiss, 
is  not  so  seriously  affected  as  the  Leipsic,  the  Her- 
mannsburg,  the  Gossner  and  the  Schleswig-Holstein 
or  Breklum  missions,  which  are  deprived  of  their 
workers  and  deprived  of  support. 

Lutherans  in  other  lands  are  doing  all  that  they 
can  to  care  for  these  enterprises.  The  Leipsic  Mis- 
sion will  be  looked  after  by  the  Lutheran  Church  of 
Sweden;  the  Schleswig-Holstein  or  Breklum  Mission 
by  the  General  Council;  the  Hermannsburg  Mission 
by  the  Joint  Sjaiod  of  Ohio,  and  the  Gossner  Mission 
by  the  General  Synod.  In  this  cause  the  American 
Norwegian  and  Danish  bodies  have  offered  their  ser- 


THE  LUTHERAN   CHURCH   IN   INDIA  91 

vices,  as  might  have  been  expected  from  their  char- 
acteristic liberality. 

Scandinavian  Societies. 

A  Trans-  '^'^^    Home    Mission    to    the    Santals, 

formation  in  founded,  as  we  have  learned  in  Chap- 
Fifty  Years.        ^^j.  jj    ^^   ^lam  Peter   Borreson    and 

Lars  Skrefsrud  was  so  called  because  the  founders 
wished  it  to  have  the  nature  of  a  "home"  from  which  all 
sorts  of  improving  influences  should  flow.  The  Santals 
are  akin  to  the  Kols  of  the  Gossner  mission.  Terribly 
oppressed,  especially  by  Hindu  money  lenders,  they 
rose  in  i860  in  a  bloody  rebellion  which  called  public 
attention  to  their  misery.  In  1867  the  two  ardent 
Scandinavians  set  to  work  among  them,  and  in  a  short 
time  saw  the  harvest  beginning  to  ripen.  The  chief 
station  is  at  Ebenezer  and  round  about  are  many 
smaller  and  independent  stations.  Good  schools  and  a 
mission  press  from  which  a  monthly  paper,  "The 
Friend  of  the  Santal",  is  issued,  are  among  the  means 
for  education.  The  thirteen  thousand  five  hundred 
Christians  are  so  well  trained  that  a  great  part  of  the 
mission  work  is  conducted  by  them.  In  Assam  the 
mission  provides  for  its  converts  who  have  gone  thither 
to  work  on  the  tea  plantations. 

The  mission  is  supported,  as  we  shall  see,  not  only 
by  the  Scandinavians  of  Europe,  but  by  those  of 
America. 

The  Danish  Evangelical  Lutheran  Missionary  So- 
ciety    has     since     1862     stations     in     Pattambakam 


92  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

in  South  Arcot.  It  has  twenty-seven  men  and  women 
at  w^ork  and  a  Christian  community  of  over  seventeen 
hundred. 

The  terrible  heat  of  Southern  India  is  one  of  the 
conditions  which  make  especially  heroic  the  service 
of  the  Scandinavians  who  are  accustomed  to  an  almost 
arctic  climate.  In  1886  a  Danish  missionary  wrote 
to  his  friends  at  home  with  no  expectation  that  his 
letter  would  ever  be  printed: 

Heroic  "Though  only  May,  it  is  now  ninety- 

Service,  six  degrees  in  the  house  night  and  day. 

Our  little  son,  four  years  old,  will  often  throw  him- 
self despairingly  on  the  floor,  exclaiming,  'O  mother, 
this  country  is  too  warm,  too  warm ;  can't  we  go  into 
the  great  ship  again  and  sail  home  to  Denmark?'  In  the 
morning  we  find  no  application  of  our  Danish  hymn, 
'Renewed  in  strength  by  nightly  rest'.  The  power  of  the 
hot,  scorching  wind  is  the  same  day  and  night.  Yet 
we  are  thankful  for  general  health.  But  we  cannot 
help  thinking  how,  when  nature  is  the  most  withering 
upon  us,  she  is  opening  into  her  fullest  loveliness  in 
Denmark.  This  very  day  letters  were  received  from 
home,  and  all  spoke  of  the  Spring,  of  the  beeches  that 
were  ready  to  leaf,  of  wood  anemones  and  violets,  of 
gardens  filled  with  Easter  lilies,  crocuses,  hyacinths, 
and  all  the  other  delicate  and  gracious  flowers  which 
are  now  covering  the  Danish  land.  Nor  did  the  letters 
merely  speak  of  them;  for  in  one  there  were  violets, 
in  another  tender  beech  leaves.     We  are  fresh  from 


THE  LUTHERAN   CHURCH   IN   INDIA  93 

seeing  all  this;  how  living  it  all  becomes  on  the  re- 
ceipt of  such  letters.     Involuntarily  we  exclaim: 
'The  Pentecostal  feast  does  nature  keep 
In  robes  of  flowery  magnificence.' 

Ah!  how  lovely  is  Denmark!" 

The  contributions  of  Norway  to  India  are  given  to 
the  Home  Mission  to  the  Santals. 

Help  in  Time  The  Evangelical  National  Missionary 
of  Famine.  Society   of   Sweden  works  among  the 

Gonds  in  the  Central  provinces  of  India.  Beginning 
in  1877  it  has  now  extended  its  work  to  include  all 
natives  in  its  vicinity.  It  has  fifty-three  Swedish 
M^orkers.  The  most  important  station  is  Chindwara, 
where  the  senior  missionary  lives  and  where  there  are 
training  schools  and  two  large  orphanages  founded 
during  the  terrible  famines  of  1896  to  1900.  Other 
institutions  established  during  that  trying  period  are 
industrial  schools  for  men  and  women  which  are  now 
self-supporting.  There  is  also  a  hospital  and  very 
active  Zenana  work. 

A  Missionary  The  Church  of  Sweden  Mission  in 
Family.  India  was  begun  in    1855   when   two 

Swedish  missionaries  went  into  the  service  of  the  Leip- 
sic  mission  in  Tamil  land.  In  1869  they  were  joined 
by  Dr.  C.  J.  Sandgren,  who  is  still  alive  and  at  work 
surrounded  by  five  of  his  children  as  fellow  workers. 
In  1 90 1  several  stations  of  the  Leipsic  mission  were 
handed  over  to  the  independent  control  of  the  Swedes 
and  since  then  the  mission  has  grown  rapidly.  Madura 
is  the  central  station  and  at  Tirupater  there  is  a  fine 


94  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

hospital.  The  mission  has  profited  greatly  by  the  mass 
movements  toward  Christianity  which  have  taken  place 
in  recent  years  in  South  India,  in  which  whole  villages 
have  asked  for  baptism,  a  condition  which  brings  new 
missionary  problems. 

It  is  to  this  mission  that  there  has  passed  during  the 
war  the  work  of  the  Leipsic  Society. 

American  Societies. 

_.  Among  the  heroes  of  the  American  Lu- 

The  Patriarch        ,  *=   ^,         ,       .       ^^  ,^  ,  ,  . 

of  the  theran     Church    is    Henry    Melchtor 

American  Lu-  Muhlenberg  who  was  born  in  Ger- 
theran   Church.  .  ^    ^^    ^   •       s         •       • 

many  in  171 1  and  died  in  America  in 

1787.     He  was  educated  at  the  University  of  Gottin- 

gen   from  which  he  went  to   Halle  to   teach   in  the 

Orphanage  and  to  prepare  himself  for  missionary  work 

in  India.     Instead  he  accepted  a  call  to  become  the 

pastor  of  the  scattered  congregations  of  Lutherans  in 

Pennsylvania.    When  he  arrived  in  1742  he  found  the 

people  without  church  buildings  or  schools  and  at  the 

mercy  of  imposters  who  claimed  to  be  clergymen.    At 

once  he  began  to  preach  and  to  organize.     Travelling 

from   New   York   to   Georgia,   doing   pastoral   work, 

forming  constitutions   for  churches  and   for  the  first 

American  Synod,  he  filled  fort3'^-five  years  to  the  brim 

with  valuable  work.    Of  him  Doctor  Henry  E.  Jacobs 

says:     "Depth    of   religious   conviction,    extraordinary 

inwardness  of  character,  apostolic  zeal  for  the  spiritual 

welfare  of  individuals,  absorbing  devotion  to  his  calling 

and  all  its  details,  were  among  his  most  marked  char- 


THE  LUTHERAN    CHURCH    IN   INDIA  95 

acteristics.  These  were  combined  with  an  intuitive 
penetration  and  extended  width  of  view,  a  statesman- 
like grasp  of  every  situation  in  which  he  was  placed, 
an  almost  prophetic  foresight,  coolness  and  discrimina- 
tion of  judgment,  and  peculiar  gifts  for  organization 
and  discrimination." 

Under  the  ministrations  of  Doctor  Muhlenberg  the 
Lutheran  Church  in  America  was  firmly  established. 
That  his  heart  turned  longingly  to  the  first  field  of 
labor  which  he  had  selected,  we  know  from  his  own 
records.  In  giving  an  account  of  the  Third  Con- 
vention of  the  JMinisterium  of  Pennsylvania,  he  said 
that  when  the  delegates  gathered  for  an  evening  meet- 
ing at  his  house  he  told  them  of  the  Mission  among 
the  Malabars  and  among  the  Jews.  Doubtless  he 
was  consoled  by  the  hope  that  there  might  go  from 
his  American  Church  those  who  would  do  what  he 
had  wished  to  do. 

^.      p.  The    missionary    consciousness    of    the 

Missionary  new  church   found  its  first  expression 

Undertaking.  jg  ^^  unsuccessful  eflfort  to  evangelize 
the  American  Indian.  In  Georgia  a  little  was  accom- 
plished by  the  pious  Salzburgers,  but  the  withdrawal 
of  the  Indians  from  the  neighborhood  of  white  settle- 
ments and  the  growing  and  natural  distrust  which  they 
felt  for  the  whites  soon  put  an  end  to  missionary  work 
among  them. 

.   ,,.    .  At   the  first  meeting  in    1820  of  the 

A  Missionary  ^ 

Institute  General  Synod,  to  which  belonged  the 

Discussed.  sy^^jg   Qf   Pennsylvania,    New   York, 

North   Carolina,   the  Joint  Synod  of  Ohio,   and  the 


96  THE  STORY  OP  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

Synods  of  Maryland  and  Virginia,  the  founding  of  a 
missionary  institute  like  those  of  the  Fatherland  was 
suggested  and  discussed.  Before  this  time  congrega- 
tions had  contributed  individually  to  the  work  of 
foreign  missions  through  the  American  Board,  an  inter- 
denominational society. 

Th    F'    t  ^^  ^^^  meeting  of  the  West  Pennsyl- 

Missionary  vania  Synod  in  Mechanicsburg  in  1836 

Society.  there  was  formed  at  the  recommenda- 

tion of  the  General  Synod  a  Central  Missionary  So- 
ciety whose  object  was  "to  send  the  Gospel  of  the  Son 
of  God  to  the  destitute  portions  of  the  Lutheran 
Church  in  the  United  States  of  America  by  means  of 
missions ;  to  assist  for  a  season  such  congregations  as  are 
not  able  to  support  the  Gospel ;  and,  ultimately  to  co- 
operate in  sending  it  to  the  heathen  world."  Later 
the  name  of  the  society  was  changed  to  "The  Foreign 
Missionary  Society  of  the  Evangelical  Lutheran 
Church  in  the  United  States  of  America." 

There  had  come  meanwhile  to  the  Lu- 
Two  Appeals.         ,  /-.i         1    •      a  •  , 

theran  Church  m  America  two  appeals 

from  the  foreign  field,  one  from  Missionary  Rhenius  in 
India  whose  career  we  have  described  in  Chapter  II, 
the  other  from  Giitzlaff  in  China,  whom  we  shall  study 
in  Chapter  V.  It  was  decided  in  answer  to  the  appeal 
of  Rhenius  that  John  Christian  Frederick  Heyer 
should  go  to  India  as  the  first  missionary  of  the  General 
Synod.  When  it  appeared  probable  that  difficulties 
would  arise  on  account  of  the  connection  with  the  in- 
terdenominational American  Board  under  whose  direc- 


A   MALAGASY   WITCH   DOCTOR. 
NATIVE    LUTHERAN    MINISTERS    IN    MADAGASCAR. 


THE  LUTHERAN   CHURCH   IN   INDIA  97 

tion  Heyer  was  to  go,  he  resigned,  and  in  1841  was 
sent  by  the  Pennsylvania  Synod  which  had  withdrawn 
from  the  General  Synod  after  the  first  meeting.  The 
death  of  Rhenius  and  the  return  of  his  followers  to 
the  English  mission  made  it  possible  for  the  Americans 
to  select  a  wholly  new  field. 

In  April,  1842,  a  hundred  years  after 
American  ^^^  arrival  of  Muhlenberg-  in  America, 

Lutheran  Mr.  Heyer  became  the  first  fruit  of  his 

Missionary.  .     .  ,  tt  c   /-> 

missionary  hopes,     lieyer  was  of  Lrer- 

man  birth  and  had  come  to  America  when  he  was 
fourteen  years  old.  From  181 7  till  1841  he  had  been 
a  home  missionary,  laboring  in  difficult  and  widely 
divided  fields  in  Pennsylvania  and  Maryland,  Indiana 
and  Kentucky,  Illinois  and  Missouri.  Travelling  from 
settlement  to  settlement  often  amid  the  greatest  hard- 
ships, he  had  established  churches  and  Sunday  schools. 

No  Longer  When  he  accepted  the  call  to  India,  he 

a  Young  Man.  was  almost  fifty  years  old.  A  younger 
man  might  well  have  hesitated  to  meet  the  dangers 
of  the  sea,  the  menace  of  a  foreign  climate,  the  loneli- 
ness of  exile.  But  Heyer  knew  neither  fear  nor  hesi- 
tation. That  he  realized  that  dangers  existed  is  shown 
by  his  own  words:  "I  feel  calm  and  cheerful,  having 
taken  this  step  after  serious  and  prayerful  considera- 
tion, and  the  approbation  of  the  churches  has  encour- 
aged me  thus  far.  But  I  am  aware  that  ere  long, 
amidst  a  tribe  of  men  whose  language  will  be  strange 
to  me,  I  shall  behold  those  smiles  only  in  remembrance, 
and  hear  the  voice  of  encouragement  only  in  dying 


98  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

whispers  across  the  ocean,  and  then  nothing  but  the 
grace  of  God,  nothing  but  a  thorough  conviction  of 
being  in  the  path  of  duty,  nothing  but  the  approving 
smile  of  Heaven  can  keep  me  from  despondency." 
Eager  to  ^^  ^^^  thought  best  that  Mr.   Heyer 

Begin.  should  begin  his  w^ork  in  the  Telugu 

country  north  of  Madras.  It  was  the  beginning  of  the 
hot  season  when  he  arrived  and  he  was  advised  to 
remain  in  Madras  and  commence  the  study  of  the 
language.  But  his  impatient  spirit  would  not  let  him 
rest.  In  spite  of  the  intense  heat,  he  travelled  to 
Nellore  and  thence  to  Guntur,  where,  invited  and 
welcomed  by  a  godly  Englishman,  Henry  Stokes,  who 
was  collector  of  the  district  and  who  had  earnestly 
wished  for  a  missionary,  he  made  an  end  of  his  long 
journey.  On  the  first  Sunday  of  August  1842,  he 
held  a  service  with  the  aid  of  an  interpreter. 
Reinforce-  ^^     once,     according     to     the     sound 

ments.  method    of    the    Lutheran    missionary, 

he  set  about  the  establishing  of  schools.  He  began 
a  school  for  beggars  and  another  for  a  scarcely  less 
despised  class — Hindu  girls.  This  was  the  first  Hin- 
du girls'  school.  Within  the  first  year  he  was  able  to 
report  three  adult  baptisms.  In  two  years  two  mis- 
sionaries came  to  his  aid,  a  German,  the  Rev.  L.  P. 
Valett  who  came  to  start  a  mission  of  the  North  Ger- 
man Society  at  Rajahmundry  and  the  Rev.  Walter 
GunUj  who  was  sent  out  by  the  General  Synod. 

In   1846  failing  health  compelled  Fa- 
ther Hej^r,  as  he  is  affectionately  call- 
ed,  to  return   to  America.     Two  years  later  he  re- 


THE  LUTHERAN   CHURCH   IN   INDIA  99 

turned  to  Guntur,  the  visitation  among  the  churches 
of  the  home  land  having  been  denied  him.  During 
the  two  years,  however,  he  had  studied  medicine, 
in  Baltimore,  receiving  his  degree  at  the  age  of  fifty- 
four. 

"Oh  G  ^"  India  he  discovered  that  in  his  ab- 

Where  is  sence  little  new  work  had  been  accom- 

thy  Victory."  ^y^^^^^  ^^  account  of  the  feeble  health 
of  Mr.  Gunn.  Now,  however,  began  a  period  of 
rapid  advance.  Father  Heyer  made  missionary  jour- 
neys into  the  Palnad  district,  and  soon,  encouraged 
by  many  conversions,  he  built  in  Gurzala,  its  chief 
town,  a  mission  house,  the  money  for  which  was  fur- 
nished by  Collector  Stokes.  Heyer's  courage  is  shown 
by  an  incident  of  his  life  in  Gurzala.  The  climate  of 
this  section  is  deadly,  and  on  reaching  there  Heyer 
had  his  grave  and  coffin  prepared  so  that  his  body 
might  be  buried  and  not  burned.  But  he  did  not 
contract  the  fever  and  when  he  left  the  field  he  burned 
the  coffin  and  repeated  at  the  grave  the  words  of  Saint 
Paul,  "O  grave,  where  is  thy  victory?" 

In  1850  the  mission  station  of  the  North  German 
or  Bremen  Society  at  Rajahmundry  was  taken  over. 

„    ,  In   1857  Father  Heyer  returned  once 

Back  to  A         ■  1 

the  Home  more  to  America,   not  to  rest  but  to 

Mission  devote  twelve  years  to  home  mission 

Field.  .  ; 

work  in  the  distant  fields  of  Minne- 
sota. In  the  meantime  discord  arose  at  home.  The 
disruption  brought  about  in  all  elements  and  institu- 
tions of  American  society  by  the  Civil  War  had  its 


100  THE  STORY  OP  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

sad  eflfect  upon  the  Church.  Support  and  mission- 
aries for  the  foreign  work  failed,  and  the  Rajah- 
mundry  station  was  about  to  pass  from  the  hands  of 
its  founders  into  those  of  the  Church  Missionary 
Society  of  England.  Father  Heyer  was  in  Germany 
at  the  time,  but  hearing  of  the  danger  threatening 
his  beloved  work,  he  set  sail  for  America,  and  ap- 
peared suddenly  at  the  meeting  of  the  Pennsylvania 
Ministerium  at  Reading  to  plead  that  the  mission 
be  retained.  He  would  go  to  India  at  once,  he  said, 
and  in  August  1869  he  turned  his  face  for  the  third 
time  across  the  sea.  He  remained  in  Rajahmundry  a 
little  over  a  year.  Then  handing  over  his  work  to  a 
successor,  the  Rev.  H.  C.  Schmidt,  he  returned  to 
America  where  he  died  in  November  1873. 

Of  him  his  biographer,  the  Rev.  Dr. 

J°  ^"^^  L.    B.    Wolf    says:      "He    needs    no 

Once  More.  ^  •' 

eulogy.  His  work  at  home  and  abroad 
makes  him  the  most  cosmopolitan  character  of  his 
time.  He  had  a  world-vision,  and  his  soul  was  rest- 
less unless  it  was  in  touch  with  the  whole  world.  He 
saw  what  few  in  his  day  were  able  to  see,  that  the 
Church  stands  for  one  supreme  work  which  must  be 
performed  in  the  whole  world  and  for  all  men.  He 
will  live  in  his  Church  when  men  of  his  day  of  much 
larger  influence  and  more  commanding  place  shall 
have  been  forgotten,  all  because  he  permitted  no  bounds 
to  be  set  to  the  sphere  of  his  work,  except  those  which 
he  recognized  as  set  by  his  Savior  and  Lord." 


THE  LUTHERAN   CHURCH    IN   INDIA  101 

Beside  Father  Heyer  there  labored  in 

,  *!^*'"  the  early  days  of  the  Lutheran  mission 

Laborers.  ■'        •' 

the  Rev.  Walter  Gunn,  who  died  after 
seven  years  of  devoted  service ;  the  Rev.  Christian  Wil- 
liam Gronning,  a  missionary  of  the  North  German 
Society,  who  entered  the  service  of  the  American  Lu- 
theran Church  when  Rajahmundry  was  transferred ; 
the  Rev.  A.  F.  Heise,  who  was  compelled  by  ill  health 
to  resign  after  eleven  years  of  work;  the  Rev.  W. 
E.  Snyder,  who  died  in  1859;  the  Rev.  W.  I.  Cutter, 
who  was  compelled  to  return  on  account  of  the  health 
of  his  wife  after  a  short  term;  and  the  Rev.  A. 
Long,  who  died  of  smallpox  after  eight  years  of 
faithful  service. 

In  1869  the  mission  field  in  India  was 
D    "d  d  permanently  divided,  the  Gunter  sta- 

tion and  the  surrounding  district  be- 
coming the  charge  of  the  General  Synod,  the  Rajah- 
mundry station  becoming  the  charge  of  the  General 
Council  of  which  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania 
was  now  a  part.  Between  the  two  missions  there 
have  been  always  the  most  cordial  and  helpful  of  re- 
lations.   In  spirit  they  have  been  one. 

We  shall  consider  first  the  work  of 
Aw""^^  the  General  Synod.    At  the  time  of  the 

division  of  the  mission  field  the  Rev. 
E.  Unangst  was  the  only  representative  of  the  Ameri- 
can Lutheran  Church  in  India.  For  three  years  he  had 
had  no  helper.  He  had  seen  since  his  arrival  in  1858 
seven  missionaries  die  or  depart;  nevertheless  his  heart 


102  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

did  not  fail.  For  thirty-seven  years  he  labored  almost 
without  interruption  and  happily  partrcipated  not  only 
in  the  sowing  but  in  the  reaping  of  the  harvest. 

A  Civil  '^^^  ^^^*  ^^'  ^'  ^'  t^(^^P^i^^^  a  vet- 

War  eran  of  the  Civil  War,  served  his  first 

Veteran.  ttrm   as   a  missionary   from    1872   till 

1876.  Returning  for  a  second  term  in  1893  he  was 
nine  years  later  allowed  by  the  General  Synod  to 
assume  temporary  charge  of  the  Rajahmundry  mis- 
sion, then  passing  through  a  period  of  confusion.  In 
the  service  of  the  Rajahmundry  mission  he  continued 
until  his  death.  To  him  his  fellow-workers  paid  this 
tribute:  "As  a  missionary  he  was  indefatigable,  as 
a  preacher  eloquent  and  inspiring.  He  labored  in 
season  and  out  to  inculcate  self-support.  Altogether 
this  was  a  man  to  love."  His  work  at  Rajahmundry 
accomplished  all  that  had  been  most  hopefully  ex- 
pected, for  in  place  of  the  discord  and  disorganization 
which  he  found  he  left  peace  and  order  and  the  promise 
of  a  great  future. 

In  1873  the  Rev.  Dr.  L.  L.  Uhl  was 
pjfty  sent  to  Guntur,  and  there   (in  191 7) 

Years  of  he  is  Still  laboring,  vigorous,  optimistic 

and  in  the  words  which  Dr.  Harpster 
applied  to  his  own  mental  condition,  "immensely  con- 
tent.' Laborers  younger  than  he  have  fallen,  a  few 
have  become  discouraged,  but  Dr.  Uhl  is  still  at  work. 

In  1872,  when  a  farewell  meeting  was 

The  Children's  j^^jj  j^  Harrisburg  for  Dr.  Uhl,  there 
Missionary.  ... 

was  in  his  audience  Adam  D.  Rowe, 

who  determined  then  to  devote  himself  to  missionary 


THE  LUTHERAN    CHURCH   IN    INDIA  103 

work.  Conceiving  the  plan  of  collecting  from  the 
children  of  the  Church  the  means  for  his  support,  he 
sailed  for  India.  Worn  out  by  his  active  labors,  he 
died  in  1882.  Similarly  there  fell  while  at  work, 
the  Rev.  John  Nichols  and  the  Rev.  Samuel  Kinsinger. 

A  missionary  who  has  been  spared  for  many  years 
of  service  is  Dr.  Anna  S.  Kugler,  who  went  to  India 
in  1883.  Beginning  in  a  humble  way  by  caring  for  a 
few  afflicted  women.  Dr.  Kugler  has  stimulated  and 
directed  the  founding  of  a  large  and  finely  equipped 
woman's  hospital.  Capable,  enthusiastic  and  deeply 
consecrated,  she  has  been  rewarded  for  years 
of  unceasing  labor  by  the  realization  of  many  of  her 
hopes.  The  importance  of  Christian  medical  work 
is  illustrated  by  an  experience  of  Dr.  Kugler.  A 
neighboring  rajah,  various  members  of  whose  family 
had  been  cured  in  the  hospital,  expressed  his  grati- 
tude not  only  by  a  large  gift,  but  also  by  the  making 
of  a  metrical  translation  of  the  Gospels  into  Telugu. 

To-day  the  Guntur  Mission  has  in  its  service  thirty- 
nine  missionaries  and  twelve  Anglo-Indian  assistants. 
In  addition  it  has  eight  hundred  and  sixty-one  native 
workers,  who  include  Bible  women,  colporteurs  and 
catechists.  It  has  a  baptized  native  membership  of  about 
fifty  thousand.  It  possesses  twenty-one  church  build- 
ings and  school  buildings,  one  hundred  and  ninety- 
six  schoolhouses  and  prayer  houses,  two  hospitals, 
three  dispensaries  and  two  college  and  high  school 
buildings.  Its  college  is  the  only  Lutheran  college 
in  India.     Its  last  biennium  has  been  extraordinarily 


104  THE  STORY  OP  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

blessed  and  unceasingly  does  it  call  like  all  other  mis- 
sionary enterprises  for  more  workers,  larger  sums  of 
money,  and  more  fervent  prayers. 

.   ,-         ,  The  record  of  the  Mission  of  the  Gen- 

A  Man  of 

Practical  eral   Council   is   a  brave  one.     When 

^  '^*  Father  Heyer  returned  to  Rajahmun- 

dry  after  his  appeal  to  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsyl- 
vania that  the  station  be  not  given  over  to  the  Church 
of  England,  he  was  followed  in  a  few  months  by  the 
Rev.  F.  J.  Becker,  who  had  scarcely  more  than  be- 
gun his  preparation  for  active  service  when  he  died. 
In  a  few  months  his  successor,  the  Rev.  H.  C.  Schmidt, 
arrived,  and  subsequently  the  Rev.  Iver  K.  Poulsen. 
For  a  short  time,  until  the  final  return  of  Father 
Heyer  to  America,  there  were  three  missionaries  on 
the  field.  Beside  his  fine  service  as  a  preacher  and 
teacher.  Doctor  Schmidt  is  especially  remembered  for 
his  wise  care  of  the  property  of  the  mission.  He  is 
the  third  of  a  trio  of  workers  in  the  Rajahmundry  mis- 
sion who  have  stood  in  the  eyes  of  their  Church  above 
their  fellow  men,  the  others  being  Father  Heyer  and 
Doctor  Harpster.  At  the  time  of  Doctor  Schmidt's 
retirement,  Doctor  Harpster  became  the  director  of 
the  mission.  Of  him  we  have  given  above  a  brief 
account. 

The  Rev.  Poulsen  withdrew  in   1888 
A  Sad  Toll.  ,  ,         .  . 

after  seventeen  years  of  active  service 

in    the    Rajahmundry    mission,    and,    coming    to    the 

United   States,  died  at  the  age  of  sixty-seven  in  the 

active  pastorate.     Within  a  few  years  two  promising 


THE  LUTHERAN   CHURCH    IN   INDIA  105 

young  men,  J.  B.  Carlson  and  H.  G.  B.  Artman, 
both  trained  in  the  Philadelphia  Theological  Semi- 
nary, arrived,  took  up  the  work  which  so  urgently 
needed  them  and  in  a  short  time  died.  Two  others, 
the  Rev.  Franklin  S.  Dietrich  and  the  Rev.  JVilliam 
Gr'onning  also  laid  down  their  lives,  the  former 
after  seven,  the  latter  after  four  years  of  service. 
Gronning,  a  son  of  C.  W.  Gronning,  was  a  brilliant 
scholar,  an  eloquent  preacher  and  a  trained  musician. 
His  parentage  and  his  early  training  had  bred  in  him 
a  deep  love  for  missions  and  his  loss  was  irreparable. 

Not  the  least  heavy  of  the  blows  which  the  mission 
suffered  was  the  death  of  the  Rev.  F.  W .  Weiskotten, 
who  w^as  sent  to  India  to  inspect  and  report  on  the 
affairs  of  the  mission.  Accompanying  his  daughter  to 
the  field,  he  died  on  the  homeward  journey  and  was 
buried  at  sea  off  the  coast  of  France  in  December 
1900. 

To-day  the  Rajahmundry  mission  reports  over 
twenty-four  thousand  members,  about  thirteen  thou- 
sand of  whom  are  communicants.  Its  missionaries 
number  eighteen  and  the  total  number  of  all  its  work- 
ers is  about  five  hundred  and  fifty.  It  owns  valuable 
property  and  conducts  a  w^idely  useful  medical  work. 

The  first  money  which  was  given  toward  the  Rajah- 
mundry hospital  was  contributed  by  the  children  in 
the  surgical  ward  of  the  German  Hospital  in  Phila- 
delphia. 


106  THE  STORY  OP  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

The  first  medical  missionary,  Doctor 
Stor°"^  ^"^  Lydia  Woerner,  describes  in  an  inci- 
dent of  her  day's  work  the  misery  of 
India  and  its  great  hope. 

"Early  one  bright  sunshiny  morning,  during  the 
monsoon  season,  I  came  through  a  side  street  in  our 
town,  passing  a  long,  high,  gray  wall.  Above  the  wall 
I  saw  palm,  banana,  mangoe  and  tamarind  trees,  which 
almost  hid  the  roofs  of  several  houses. 

"As  I  looked  I  noticed  a  little  green  door  in  the 
wall.  When  I  asked  my  helpers  about  the  place, 
they  all  knew  it  by  the  little  green  door,  which  they 
told  me  was  always  locked  on  the  inside.  It  had  sev- 
eral small  holes  through  which  the  secluded  women 
peeped  without  being  seen.  Our  Bible  woman  had 
tried  many  times  to  gain  entrance,  but  was  told  by 
voices  from  behind  the  little  green  door  that  her  pres- 
ence would  pollute  the  place.  One  of  the  helpers  sug- 
gested that  we  pray  to  God  to  open  that  little  green 
door  for  us. 

"A  few  nights  later,  during  a  terrific  storm  and  a 
pouring  rain,  two  native  officials  came  with  an  urgent 
call  to  take  me  to  the  house  of  another  official.  I  did 
not  know  him  nor  where  he  lived,  but  they  told  me 
his  wife  had  been  suffering  intensely  for  several  days, 
so  my  helper  and  I  picked  up  the  emergency  bag  and 
started  of¥  with  them.  On  the  way  we  were  told  that 
every  native  midwife  available  had  tried  to  relieve  the 
patient,  but  had  failed.  Large  offerings  had  been 
made  to  the  gods  in  their  favorite  temple.     Even  the 


THE  LUTHERAN   CHURCH    IN    INDIA  107 

river  goddess  had  been  implored  to  give  help,  by 
sacrifices  thrown  into  her  waters.  As  a  last  resort, 
they  had  come  to  seek  help  from  the  missionary  doctor. 

"We  were  drenched  and  stiff,  as  we  crawled  out  of 
the  oxcart.  It  was  very  dark.  The  streets  were 
flooded,  but  a  flash  of  lightning  revealed  to  us  that  we 
were  in  front  of  the  little  green  door — and  it  was  open. 
Outside,  under  umbrellas  and  blankets,  were  groups 
of  men — friends  of  the  husband — who  had  come  to 
sympathize  with  him  because  his  wife  was  giving  him 
so  much  trouble.  The  sympathy  was  all  for  the  hus- 
band. Probably,  after  all  the  trouble  his  wife  was 
making,  she  would  give  him  only  a  girl  child! 
Inside  was  bedlam!  A  crowd  of  women  were  shriek- 
ing and  crying.  Little  fires  had  been  placed  in  pots 
all  over  the  veranda.  Smoking  censers  were  swinging 
at  windows  and  doorways,  to  prevent  the  evil  spirits 
from  entering  the  house. 

"The  husband  came  to  meet  me  with  a  lantern.  He 
was  much  distressed,  and  besought  me  in  beautiful 
English  to  grant  him  help  in  his  great  calamity.  This 
was  his  third  wife.  The  gods  were  against  him.  He 
had  no  child — only  three  daughters !  Not  one  word  of 
anxiety  or  sympathy  did  he  have  for  his  suflEering  wife. 

"I  saw  her  lying  on  an  old  cot,  with  a  coarse  bamboo 
mat  and  gunny  bag  for  bedding.  She  was  a  beautiful 
young  Brahman  girl.  The  cot  was  on  the  outside 
veranda,  exposed  to  wind  and  rain.  The  patient  had 
already  been  partially  prepared  for  death.  She  was 
covered  with  burns  and  bruises,  and  was  very  weak, 


108  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

but  she  looked  at  me  with  her  beautiful  eyes,  and  im- 
plored me  not  to  treat  her  as  cruelly  as  the  others  had 
done.  It  was  a  weird  scene,  with  the  flickering  little 
lamps,  the  beautiful  ill-treated  patient,  and  the  curious 
faces  of  the  women  peering  at  us  out  of  the  darkness. 

"Under  great  protest  the  relatives  finally  allowed  the 
patient  to  be  moved  into  a  small  veranda  room.  By 
and  by  things  calmed  down,  and  the  people  left  for 
their  homes.  All  was  quiet,  and  the  patient's  confi- 
dence and  strength  revived.  At  dawn  we  left  a 
smiling  young  mother  holding  her  newborn  son  in 
her  arms,  and  a  father  proud  and  happy,  because 
now    he    had    a  child,    an    heir    to    his    large   estate. 

"The  little  green  door  opened  to  let  us  out.  A  little 
child  had  opened  it,  and  never  since  that  night 
has  it  been  closed  to  us  or  to  the  Gospel  message." 

The  General  Council  conducts  a  mission  in  the  City 
of  Rangoon  in  Burma.  The  native  catechist,  who  has 
been  in  charge  of  the  work  for  three  years,  writes  that 
he  has  won  thirty  souls  for  his  Lord.  He  says 
further : 

"Though  the  year  has  been  a  black  one. 
The  Letter  f^H    of    trials,    temptations,    accidents 

Worker.  ^"^  poisonous  fevers  and  break  of  work 

on  account  of  the  present  war,  such  as 
the  world  has  never  witnessed,  yet  God  has  brought 
us  through  safe  and  given  us  the  victory.  And  when 
the  time  shall  come  for  the  strife  and  toil,  the  tumults 
and  wars,  the  tears  and  groans  of  creation  to  end  for- 
ever, then  shall  come  the  jubilee,  the  grand  coronation 


THE  LUTHERAN   CHURCH   IN   INDIA  109 

song  shall  be  sung  by  the  resurrected  redeemed  hosts 
of  the  Lord,  saying,  'Thou  art  worthy  to  take  the 
book  and  to  open  the  seals  thereof;  for  Thou  wast 
slain  and  hast  redeemed  us  to  God  by  Thy  blood  out 
of  every  kindred  and  tongue  and  people  and  nation; 
and  hast  made  us  unto  our  God  kings  and  priests; 
and  we  shall  reign  on  the  earth.'  " 

In  1894  the  Missouri  Lutheran  Synod  began  work 
in  India  in  the  Salem  district  of  the  Madras  Presi- 
dency, their  first  station  being  at  Krishnagiri.  There 
the  pioneer  missionary  the  Rev.  Th.  Naether  labored 
until  his  death  in  1904.  In  1907  the  work  was  ex- 
tended to  Travancore,  The  mission  has  eleven  chief 
stations  and   fourteen  missionaries. 

The  women's  societies  of  this  synod  are  very  active, 
their  contribution  including  not  only  money  but  large 
shipments  of  garments  for  the  children  in  the  mission 
schools.  The  medical  work  of  the  mission,  the  re- 
treat for  missionaries  in  the  hills,  and  the  school  for 
missionaries'  children  are  supported  entirely  by  the 
women's  societies. 

The  Joint  Synod  of  Ohio  which  had  taken  over  be- 
fore the  war  the  Kodur  and  Puttur  stations  of  the 
Hermannsburg  mission  has  now  agreed  to  support  the 
entire  mission. 

The  Lutheran  Synod  of  loiva  sends  contributions 
to  the  work  of  the  Leipsic  Society. 

The  Danes  and  Norwegians  in  America  support 
the  Home  Mission  to  the  Santals.     The  Swedes  are 


110  THE  STORY  OP  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

a  part  of  the  General  Council  and  help  to  support 
her  mission.  ^ 

We  owe  to  the  Rev,  George  Drach  the  closing  words 
of  our  Indian  story. 

"To-day  there  are  no  less  than  twelve  different 
missions  in  various  parts  of  India,  supported  and  con- 
trolled by  societies  and  boards  of  the  Lutheran  Church 
in  Europe  and  America,  numbering  according  to  the 
census  of  191 1,  a  native  Christian  constituency  of 
nearly  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand.  To  emphasize 
their  unity  in  faith  and  to  consult  concerning  the 
best  method  of  mission  work,  as  well  as  to  plan  for 
closer  co-operation,  delegates  were  sent  by  the  various 
Lutheran  missions  to  an  All-India  Lutheran  Con- 
ference at  Rajahmundry,  held  December  31,  191 1  to 
January  4,  19 12.  This  was  the  second  conference  of 
this  character,  the  first  having  been  held  at  Guntur 
four  years  ago. 

All  told,  eighty  European  and  American  and  twelve 
Indian  delegates  came  together  at  Rajahmundry  in 
order  to  advance  by  the  fostering  of  Christian  fel- 
lowship among  Lutheran  brethren  and  by  practically 
helpful  deliberation,  the  cause  of  Christ  in  India. 
They  represented  the  Leipsic,  Missouri,  Swedish  and 
Danish  missions  of  the  Tamil  country,  the  Hermanns- 
burg,  Breklum,  American  General  Council  and  Ameri- 
can General  Synod  Missions  of  the  Telugu  country, 
and  the  Gossner  Mission  of  the  North.  The  dele- 
gates came  from  the  South  of  India  where  the  breezes 
have  not  yet  spent  all  the  spicy  fragrance  of  which. 


THE  LUTHERAN   CHURCH   IN   INDIA  111 

softly  blowing,  they  robbed  Ceylon's  isle;  they  came 
from  the  sun-scorched  plains  of  Central  India,  where 
great  rivers  roll  seaward  in  tepid  sluggishness;  they 
came  from  the  far  north  where  the  vast,  snowy  reaches 
of  the  Himalayas  abruptly  bound  the  view.  It  was  a 
joy  to  see  them,  young  men  still  in  the  newness  of  the 
first  years  of  missionary  service,  perhaps  still  study- 
ing the  vernacular  of  their  fields  of  work;  men  in  the 
prime  of  life  who  had  tested  their  strength  upon  the 
tasks  God  gave  them  to  perform  amid  surrounding 
heathendom,  and  who  had  become  wise  in  counsel  and 
strong  in  achievement;  older  men  whose  whitening 
hair  confirmed  the  story,  told  by  their  battle-worn 
faces,  of  decades  of  service  against  the  forces  of  Satan, 
and  who  yet  burned  at  heart  with  the  zeal  of  young 
warriors.  Moreover,  there  was  not  a  department  of 
woman's  work  in  missions  that  had  not  its  goodly  com- 
plement of  women  present  at  the  conference  .  .  .  Could 
any  other  Church,  besides  the  Lutheran,  have  gathered 
together  in  one  body  such  a  unique,  diversified  yet 
united  conference  of  Indian  ■  missionaries  and  Chris- 
tians? ....  The  conference  marked  an  epoch  in  the 
work  of  Lutheran  missions  in  India,  which,  united, 
strong  and  zealous,  will  not  be  content  until  they 
occupy  advanced  ground  in  the  movement  of  the  army 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Chrigt," 


CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Lutheran  Church  in  Africa 

The  Land. 

The  People 

Womanhood    in   Africa 

The  Riches  of  Africa 

A   Continent   Betrayed 

The  Traffic  in  Gin 

Mohammedanism  in  Africa 

Africa  under  European   Flags 

The  Picture  not  all  Dark 

The    First    African    Missionary    a    Lutheran 

The  German   Societies. 

{fVest  Coast) 
Basel 
Gossner 
North    German   or   Bremen 

{South  Africa) 
Rhenish 
Berlin 

Hermannsburg 
Hanover 

{East   Africa) 
John  Ludwig  Krapf  and  Johann  Rebmann  the  Founders 
Bielefeld 
Berlin 
Leipsic 

Breklum    or    Schleswig-Holstein 
Neukirchen 

Germans  at  Work  for  Other  Societies. 

Scandinavian    Societies. 

Noiwegian  Missionary  Society 
Norwegian    Church    Mission    (Schreuder) 
Swedish   State   Church 
Swedish   National    Society 


Finnish  Lutheran  Missionary  Society. 

Norwegian   Missionary  Society   in   Madagascar. 

American  Societies. 
Norwegian   Synod 
United  Norwegian  Church 
Norwegian    Free    Church 
General    Synod 


Chapter  W  . 
the  lutheran  church  in  africa 

The  continent  of  Africa  has  been  li- 
The   Land.  ,  ,  !_•  i  • 

kened  to  a  great  ear  which  waits  upon 

the  word  of  the  rest  of  the  world.  It  is  enormous  in 
extent,  its  area  being  nearly  twelve  million  square  miles. 
If  a  line  should  be  run  east  and  west  a  little  north 
of  the  Equator,  the  northern  section  would  enclose 
all  North  America,  the  southern  section  all  Europe. 
The  coast  line  is  low,  and  the  country  near  the  coast 
unhealthy;  the  interior  is  high,  composed  of  vast 
table  lands  and  mountain  ranges.  The  Congo  River, 
which  is  said  to  be  thirty  times  the  size  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi, rushes  to  the  sea  over  gigantic  waterfalls  and 
through  deep-cut  channels  which  are  almost  unfathom- 
able. Besides  the  Congo  there  are  three  other  large 
rivers,  the  Niger,  flowing  toward  the  west,  the  Nile, 
toward  the  north,  the  Zambesi  toward  the  east. 

It    is   estimated    that   the    native   pop- 
The  People.  ,     .  t       s  e  •  ^  ^ 

ulation     of     Africa     numbers     about 

one  hundred  and  seventy-five  millions.  Among  this 
vast  throng  there  is  the  widest  diversity  of  char- 
acter, religion  and  speech.  Beside  the  negroes 
there  are  millions  of  Arabs,  Copts,  Berbers  and 
Moors.  One  of  the  better  tribes  of  negroes,  the 
Kondes  of  Central  Africa,  is  described  by  a  Lutheran 


116  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

missionary.  "You  can  hardly  imagine,  for  Africa, 
anything  more  idyllic  than  a  Konde  village.  First, 
well-tilled  fields  announce  that  it  is  near;  then  we  of- 
ten see  a  widely-extended  banana  grove.  The  dwell- 
ing houses  are  often  so  neat  and  clean  that  they  would 
draw  attention  even  in  Europe.  The  people  are  strong 
and  of  muscular  build,  their  color  is  dark.  You  notice 
among  the  men  many  whose  features  speak  of  reflec- 
tion. They  are  sober  and  honest.  There  appears, 
therefore,  to  be  such  a  soil  for  the  diffusion  of  the 
Gospel  as  is  seldom  found." 

Of  the  worst  tribes  it  is  difficult  to  speak  or  write. 
Their  degradation  seems  to  put  them  below  the  level  of 
the  beasts.  Indescribable  practices,  cannibalism  and 
slavery  are  common.  A  member  of  the  Congo  medical 
service  said  of  that  section  of  the  country:  "At 
N'Gandu,  we  found  that  the  chief  had  gathered  to- 
gether about  ten  thousand  cannibal  brigands,  mostly 
of  the  Batatela  race.  Through  the  whole  of  the  Bat- 
atela  country  for  some  four  days'  march,  one  sees 
neither  gray  hairs,  nor  halt,  not"  blind.  Even  parents 
are  eaten  by  their  children  on  the  first  sign  of  ap- 
proaching decrepitude.  N'Gandu  is  approached  by 
a  very  handsome  pavement  of  human  skulls,  the  top 
being  the  only  part  showing  above  ground.  I  counted 
more  than  a  thousand  skulls  in  the  pavement  of  one 
gate  alone.  Almost  every  tree  forming  the  fortifi- 
cation was  crowned  with  a  human  skull." 

Commenting  upon  the  conditions  in  which  many 
Africans   live,   a   missionary  says   that   "when   eleven 


THE  LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  AFRICA  117 

men,  women  and  children,  and  seventeen  goats  live 
together  in  a  hut  seventeen  feet  square,  it  is  difficult 
for  the  flowers  of  love  and  tenderness  to  flourish." 

If  we  wait  for  evolution  to  raise  these  poor  people, 
we  will  wait  forever.  Fortunately,  here  and  there, 
another  theory  of  human  development  has  been  applied 
with  magical   results. 

The  African  -^  student  of  Africa  and  the  Africans 
Woman.  has   seen    in    the    shape    of    the    conti- 

nent the  figure  of  a  woman  with  a  huge  burden  on 
her  back,  looking  toward  America.  If  it  is  true  that 
"the  index  of  civilization  of  every  nation  is  not  their 
religion,  their  manner  of  life,  their  prosperity,  but  the 
respect  paid  to  women",  then  we  need  seek  no  fur- 
ther for  proof  of  the  sad  degradation  of  the  Dark 
Continent.  Bought  and  sold,  rented  or  given  away, 
living  in  polygamy  or  worse  conditions,  "she  is  the 
prey  of  the  strong,  her  virtue  is  held  of  no  account, 
she  has  no  innocent  childhood,  motherhood  is  dese- 
crated, and  when  she  wraps  vileness  about  her  as  her 
habitual  garment,  it  is  encouraged."  In  the  words  of 
Doctor  Dennis,  "she  is  regarded  as  a  scandal  and 
a  slave,  a  drudge  and  a  disgrace,  a  temptation  and  a 
terror,  a  blemish  and  a  burden".  It  is  far  easier  for 
an  African  to  accept  the  Gospel  for  himself  than  to 
believe  that  it  is  intended  also  for  women.  Doctor 
Day  describes  the  vigorous  driving  away  of  the  women 
from  his  services  by  the  headman  or  "king-whip"'  who 
laid  about  him  briskly  as  he  cried  out,  "This  God- 
palaver  is  not  for  women!" 


118  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

The  Riches  ^^^  riches  of  Africa  are  for  the  most 

of  Africa.  part   surmised   rather   than   accurately 

known.  The  country  is  fertile  and  crops  can  be  cul- 
tivated with  a  minimum  of  effort.  Great  forests 
abound — ebony,  teak,  rosewood,  mahogany  and  almost 
every  other  known  kind  of  timber.  An  investigator 
with  a  fondness  of  mathematical  speculation  has  said 
that  the  forests  of  Africa  would  build  a  boardwalk 
round  the  globe  six  inches  thick  and  eight  miles  wide. 
The  names  of  certain  localities,  "Diamond  fields", 
"Gold  Coast",  "Ivory  Coast",  tell  us  of  the  riches  to  be 
found  therein.  The  coal  deposits  are  estimated  as 
covering  eight  hundred  thousand  square  miles. 
The  copper  fields  equal  those  of  North  America 
and  Europe  combined ;  the  undeveloped  iron  ore 
amounts  to  five  times  that  of  North  America. 
Nor  is  the  power  for  the  development  of  these 
riches  wanting.  Human  strength  is  there;  the 
black  who  carries  on  his  back  for  the  many  hours 
of  a  long  march  a  sixty  pound  burden  can  learn  to 
apply  his  muscles  to  other  tasks.  Water  power  is 
there  in  enormous  waterfalls,  and  there  are  many  nav- 
igable rivers. 

W.  E.  Burghardt  Dubois,  himself  of  African  de- 
scent, declares  that  in  Africa  may  be  found  not  only 
the  roots  of  the  present  war,  but  the  menace  of  fu- 
ture wars.  Of  the  process  by  which  the  European 
nations  have  gained  possession  of  practically  all  the 
black  man's  continent  he  speaks  with  passionate  in- 
dignation.   "Lying  treaties,  rivers  of  rum,  murder,  as- 


THE  LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  AFRICA  119 

sassination,  mutilation,  rape  and  torture"  have  marked 
the  progress  of  these  nations  in  their  campaign  for 
African  land.  There  is  the  spoil  "exceeding  the  gold- 
haunted  dreams  of  the  most  modern  of  imperialists" 
there  is  the  prize  for  which  nations  will  struggle  in- 
definitely unless  a  new  spirit  is  bred  among  them. 
A  Continent  The  great  missionar}'^  command,  "Go 
Betrayed.  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach  my 

Gospel  to  every  creature"  is  a  sufficient  direction  for  the 
Christian  world  in  its  relations  with  Africa;  but  re- 
inforcing it  there  is,  or  there  should  be,  our  enor- 
mous obligation  to  this  most  benighted  country.  Af- 
rica is  the  most  helpless  continent,  the  most  degraded, 
and,  alas,  that  it  should  be  so,  the  most  fearfully 
abused.  Livingstone  described  it  as  the  open  sore  of 
the  world.  Small  countries  have  been  exploited,  the 
Papuans  of  Australia  have  been  almost  exterminated, 
the  American  Indian  has  been  driven  from  hunting 
ground  t^  hunting  ground  until  all  that  he  can  call 
his  own  i»  a  small  donation  of  the  vast  land  which  was 
once  his.  .  But  Africa  is  a  whole  continent  w^hich  has 
been  betrayed.  The  white  man  has  in  the  main  not 
so -ght  to  enlighten,  to  show  the  hideousness  of  sin, 
to  point  the  better  way,  but  upon  the  evil  fires  of 
paganism  he  has  poured  gin  so  that  the  smouldering 
ashes  have  leaped  into  destroying  flame.  The  sla- 
very which  was  one  of  the  most  horrible  products  of 
paganism  he  did  not  try  to  abolish,  but  himself  stole 
and  bought  human  beings;  in  all  one  hundred  million 
souls. 


120  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

The  history  of  the  African  rum  traffic  would  seem 
to  take  forever  from  England  and  Germany  and  the 
United  States  their  boasted  name  of  Christian.  Upon 
the  heart  of  our  Doctor  Day  this  fearful  evil  lay  vv^ith 
a  heavy  weight.     Said  he: 

The  Traffic  "Within  a  stone's  throw  of  us  lay  a 

in  Gin.  large  steamer  laden  to  the  water's  edge 

with  rum.  When  we  remember  that  one  of  these 
steamers  carries  four  thousand  tons  of  freight  and  that 
hundreds  of  them  are  running  to  the  country  laden 
with  rum,  the  very  vilest  that  chemistry  can  invent 
and  concoct,  we  may  have  some  conception  of  what 
it  means,  not  only  to  the  heathen,  but  to  missionaries 
at  work  there.  At  the  mouth  of  every  river  and  stream 
wherever  there  is  a  rod  of  beach  smooth  enough  to 
land,  the  traffic  goes  on.  In  the  name  of  God,  in  the 
name  of  all  that  is  high  and  holy,  why  do  not  the 
owners  of  these  ships,  who  live  in  luxury  in  Boston, 
Liverpool,  Hamburg  and  London,  paint  their  ships 
black  and  run  up  the  black  flag,  or  better  still,  nail 
it  to  the  mast?  Never  pirate  sailed  the  seas  whose 
crimes  were  so  black  as  the  crimes  now  perpetrated  on 
this  continent  in  the  name  of  commerce. 

"At  Freetown,  our  ship  had  a  lot  of  powder  to 
discharge.  It  could  not  be  landed  at  the  regular 
wharf,  but  must  be  landed  in  a  state  of  quarantine  a 
quarter  of  a  mile  away.  What  a  farce!  There  lay 
the  liquor  ship  landing  thousands  of  cases  of  rum, 
dangerous  in  a  thousand  fold  greater  sense  than  all 
the  powder  that  ever  went  into  the  dark  continent. 


GIRLS    OF    EMMA    V.    DAY    SCHOOL,    MUHLENBERG,    AFRICA, 
CARRYING    WATER    AND    SEWING    IN    GARDEN. 


THE  LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  AFRICA  121 

Think  too  of  the  awful  caricature  of  ships  carrying 
in  their  holds  these  untold  millions  of  gallons  of  rum, 
holding  on  Sabbath  the  beautiful  services  of  the  Church 
of  England !  More  than  all  this,  along  this  coast  are 
ships  of  war,  bristling  with  cannon,  and  on  these  ships, 
too,  are  read  the  Sabbath  service,  and  there  is  a  chap- 
lain to  read  daily  prayers.  They  are  here  to  protect 
commerce,  a  trade  that  is  transforming  so  many  of 
these  people  into  driveling  idiots,  gibbering  maniacs, 
thieves,  harlots,  everything  that  is  low  and  wicked, 
then  launching  their  sinful  souls  into  the  lake  that 
burns." 

To  the  horror  of  its  own  situation  Africa  is  not  dull. 
Like  the  American  Indian,  like  every  poor  besotted 
wretch  in  his  hours  of  sanity,  the  African  has  be- 
sought that  this  curse  be  removed.  In  1883  the  na- 
tives of  the  diamond  fields  implored  the  Cape  Par- 
liament to  have  public  houses  removed  at  least  six 
miles.  The  petition  was  refused. 
Mohammedan-  ^  little  over  six  hundred  years  before-- 
ism  in  Africa,  the  Christian  era  Mohammed 
preached  his  new  religion  in  Arabia,  urging  upon  those 
who  followed  him  prayer,  almsgiving,  fasting  and  pil- 
grimage to  Mecca,  and  allowing  them  slavery,  con- 
cubinage, polygamy  and  easy  divorce.  With  the  rap- 
idity of  fire  in  a  field  of  dry  grass  the  new  faith 
spread,  not  the  least  productive  of  the  methods  of 
the  prophet  being  wars  of  subjugation  and  extermina- 
tion. 


122  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

The  Mohammedans  soon  conquered  North  Africa 
sweeping  away  the  early  Christianity,  and  then  crossed 
into  Spain  from  which  they  were  finally  driven.  For 
a  long  time  the  great  desert  served  as  an  impenetrable 
barrier  to  further  advance  in  Africa,  but  presently  they 
crossed  the  desert,  and  when  Christian  missionaries 
arrived  on  the  west  coast,  they  found  that  Islam  had 
preceded  them.  Forbidding  none  of  the  old  practices 
of  heathendom,  imposing  only  a  few  new  rules  which 
are  easily  followed,  the  Mohammedan  faith  has  had  an 
enormous  following.  Betw^een  the  Crescent  and  the 
Cross  West  Africa  must  make  her  choice  and  upon  the 
Christian  Church  depends  the  decision. 

In  meeting  Islam  and  its  active  missionaries  the 
Christian  cannot  but  be  sadly  aware  that  the  evil  of 
drink  was  and  is  condemned  by  the  prophet  and  hi; 
followers  and  that  to  a  true  Mohammedan  all  forms 
of  alcohol  are  taboo,  a  fact  with  which  the  Moham- 
medan has  not  failed  to  taunt  his  rival. 

Dr.  Zwemer  and  Dr.  Westerman  estimate  the  total 
population  of  the  Moslem  world  to  be  two  hundred 
million  of  whom  forty  two  million  are  in  Africa.  To 
them  as  well  as  to  the  pagan  should  the  Gospel  message 

go- 

A  missionary  book  or  a  missionary  address  to  which 

I  am  not  able  to  give  credit  describes  the  parting  of 
an  English  trader  from  the  African  woman  with  whom 
he  had  lived  during  a  long  residence  in  Africa,  who 
had  served  him  and  truly  loved  him.     Having  accu- 


THE  LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  AFRICA  123 

mulated  riches,  he  was  about  to  return   to   England 

without  even  bidding  her  farewell,  but  she  had  heard 

of  his  departure  and  followed  him  to  the  shore,  where 

throwing  herself  at  his  feet,  she  besought  him  not  to 

cast  her  aside.     Indifferent  to  her  grief,  annoyed  by 

her  importunity,  he  angrily  thrust  her  from  him  and 

embarked.     Such  have  been  the  dealings  of  the  white 

race  with  Africa. 

...      ^T    ,  Except  for  a  few  almost  negligible  sec- 

Africa  Under         ^       ^  ,  _  ^   * 

European  tions  the  continent  is  under  European 

Flags.  flags.     France  owns  a  colony  twenty 

times  the  size  of  France  itself;  Great  Britain  a  col- 
ony as  large  as  the  United  States,  which  extends  al- 
most without  interruption  from  the  coast  to  Cairo,  a 
distance  of  six  thousand  miles;  Germany,  a  colony 
one  and  one  half  times  as  large  as  the  German  Em- 
pire in  Europe;  Belgium,  a  territory  equal  to  that  of 
Germany;  and  Portugal,  Spain  and  Italy  a  twelfth  of 
the  continent  between  them. 

But  the  picture  is  not  all  dark.     The 

KT  !  Ai'f^^'^^i  mention  of  Africa  recalls  to  our  minds 
Not  All  Dark. 

the  names  of  Livingstone,  of  Robert 
Moffatt,  of  David  A.  Day.  The  Christian  world  has 
in  Africa  its  records  of  shame,  it  has  also  its  records 
of  glory.  It  has  at  Kimberly  the  deep  shafts  of  dia- 
mond mines,  symbol  of  the  pride  and  lust  of  man's 
heart ;  it  has  nearby  the  graves  of  many  pious  Ger- 
man Lutherans.  Lingering  along  the  western  shore 
there    must    be    still    the    cries    of    the    afflicted,    the 


124  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

wailing  of  mothers  torn  from  their  children,  of 
husbands  beaten  from  their  wives!  Yet  here  are 
the  graves  of  the  children  of  David  A.  Day.  Into 
the  distant  interior  penetrated  the  slave  raiders, 
torturing,  driving  the  inhabitants  from  their  villages, 
binding  them  with  chains,  marking  their  course  with 
blood ;  yet  here  is  buried  the  heart  of  Livingstone. 
Whether  or  not  we  heed  the  call,  we  are  bound  to 
Africa  by  an  unbreakable  bond. 

It  is  a  satisfaction  and  an  inspiration 
African  ^^  know  in  the  searching  of  heart  which 

Missionary  should  be  ours  that  our  own  church 

has  heeded  the  Ethiopian  call.  If  it 
is  true  that  "when  the  history  of  the  great  African 
States  of  the  future  comes  to  be  written,  the  arrival 
of  the  first  missionary  will  be  the  first  historical  event", 
then  will  the  Lutheran  Church  have  its  Peter  Heil- 
ing  (Chapter  I)  to  record  as  the  first  of  the  Protes- 
tants to  concern  himself  directly  with  the  spiritual 
welfare  of  the  Africans.  Would  that  there  were  no 
such  gap  as  that  which  exists  between  his  going  to 
Abyssinia  in  1634  and  that  of  the  next  Lutheran 
missionaries ! 

For  purposes  of  Lutheran  missionary  study,  we  shall 
divide  Africa  into  three  sections:  first,  the  West  Coast; 
secondly.  South  Africa;  thirdly.  East  Africa.  As 
in  the  case  of  India  we  shall  consider  first  the  work 
of  the  German,  then  the  work  of  the  Scandinavian, 
then  the  work  of  the  American  Lutherans, 


THE  LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  AFRICA  125 

THE  GERMAN  SOCIETIES 
The  West  Coast. 

The  Spirit  ^^   *^^   eastern   side   of   the   so-called 

of  Faith.  Gold    Coast   went   in    1828   the   Basel 

Society  to  begin  a  costly  work.  "Sober  and  patient" 
— thus  Doctor  Warneck  describes  them.  Opposed  to 
them  were  superstition,  dense  ignorance,  a  fearful  cli- 
mate, to  say  nothing  of  all  the  difficulties  produced  by 
colonial  politics. 

Between  1828  and  1842  the  society  sent  to  the  West 
Coast  of  Africa  seventeen  ministers,  ten  of  whom 
died  within  one  year,  two  others  in  three  years,  and 
three  returned  to  their  native  country  confirmed  inva- 
lids. Yet  steadily  they  pressed  from  the  coast  into 
the  still  darker  interior,  working  among  the  Ga,  Chi 
and  Ashanti  negroes.  In  Africa  there  are  few  native 
tribes  which  have  a  written  language,  hence  the  first 
work  of  the  substantial  missionary  is  to  create  one. 
Wars  among  the  natives  and  wars  among  the  great  na- 
tions disturbed  the  mission,  but  the  work  went  on  in 
spite  of  all  obstacles.  After  thirty  years  of  labor  three 
hundred  and  sixt3^-seven  Christians  were  counted,  after 
sixty  years  eighteen  thousand.  Station  after  station 
has  been  founded,  school  after  school  established.  A 
theological  seminary  trains  the  natives  to  preach,  the 
famous  Basel  Industrial  enterprises  train  their  hands 
and  eyes,  and  medical  missionaries  heal  their  bodies 
and  show  them  how  to  live  in  cleanliness  and  decency. 


126  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

Among  the  most  devoted  heroes  of  this 
"The  Door-  .    .  -     ,  „..         ^      i 

Keeper  of  mission,  was  Andrew  Kits,  a  Lutheran. 

the   Gold  At  one  time  when   three   or  four   mis- 

Coast." 

sionaries  had  died  and  persecution  had 

dimmed  somewhat  the  lamp  of  faith,  he  was  advised 
to  return  to  Europe.  But  he  would  listen  to  no  such 
advice.  Sending  back  the  message,  "I  will  remain", 
he  went  farther  into  the  interior.  Presently  there  ar- 
rived two  other  missionaries  and  with  them  the  young 
woman  to  whom  Riis  was  engaged.  When  the  two 
newly  arrived  missionaries  died,  Riis  was  left  once 
more,  the  only  "door-keeper"  on  the  Gold  Coast.  Now 
he  sailed  for  Europe,  not  to  give  up  the  mission  but 
to  rouse  the  home  churches  to  its  support.  Successful 
in  this  effort,  he  returned  to  the  field  and  the  mission 
began  anew,  now  quickly  to  become  prosperous. 

The  changed  conditions  in  this  dark  land  are  de- 
scribed in  a  German  missionary  journal. 
p^  City  "In  June,   1869,  the  missionary  Ram- 

Transformed,  seyer,  of  the  Basel  Missionary  Society, 
was  dragged  as  a  prisoner  into  Abetifi,  then  a  city  of 
Ashantee,  with  his  wife  and  child.  They  spent  three 
days  in  a  miserable  hut,  with  their  feet  in  chains. 
Human  sacrifices  were  then  common  in  Abetifi,  which 
was  under  the  tyrannical  rule  of  the  Ashantee  chief- 
tains. To-day,  in  the  same  streets,  under  the  same 
shady  trees,  instead  of  the  bloody  executioner  going 
his  rounds,  a  Christian  congregation  gathers  together 
every  Sunday.  Christian  hymns,  such  as,  "Who  will 
be  Christ's  Soldier?"  ring  joyfully  through  the  streets. 


THE  LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  AFRICA  127 

The  people  come  out  of  their  houses,  the  chieftain  is  in- 
vited ;  he  comes  with  his  suite  and  h'stens  to  the  joyful 
tidings  of  salvation.  And  it  is  not  vain;  many  have 
become  the  disciples  of  Jesus.  Many  even  dare  to  tell 
their  fellow-countrymen  in  the  streets  what  joy  and 
peace  they  have  found  in  Him." 

In  1896  the  Basel  mission  opened  its  eleventh  sta- 
tion at  Kumassi.  It  has  twenty-four  thousand  three 
hundred  church  members  with  a  school  roll  of  nearly 
eight  thousand  pupils.  There  are  thirty-six  mission- 
aries and  forty-three  other  Europeans  who  direct  the 
industrial  and  commercial  w^ork.  The  mission  extends 
from  Ashanti  beyond  the  Volta  River. 

The  Basel  mission  has  also  a  flourish- 
The  Beauty  of     .  i      •        ^       r~<  i  c 

Nature  and  the  ^"2   work   m    the    Lrerman    colony   or 

Depredation  Kamerun,  among  the  Bantu  negroes. 
The  beauty  of  the  land  in  which  they 
work  and  the  human  misery  are  described  by  one  of 
the  missionaries.  "It  is  a  beautiful  wild  country  which 
often  reminds  us  of  Switzerland ;  on  all  sides  we  see 
chains  of  mountains  separated  by  deep  valleys,  roaring 
torrents,  foaming  water  falls,  and  forests  of  palm 
trees  reaching  to  the  highest  summits.  How  many 
times  our  hearts  have  leaped  for  joy  at  the  glory  of 
the  scene!  And,  on  the  other  hand,  what  a  sorrow 
it  is  to  see  humanity  fallen  so  low!  The  inhabitants 
of  this  paradise  live  in  a  real  hell,  always  in  unspeak- 
able dread  of  evil  spirits  and  of  death.  The  dying 
often  quit  this  world  with  cries  of  terror.  The  differ- 
ent tribes  fight  constantly  with  one  another.     Their 


128  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

moral  condition  is  incredible.  There  are  actually  cer- 
tain localities  which  exchange  their  dead  In  order  to 
devour  them." 

How  vividly  this  description  brings  to  our  minds 
a  danger  not  often  considered  at  home,  the  fearful 
effect  which  constant  sight  of  the  most  hideous  im- 
morality upon  the  missionary  who  is  himself  but  a  man. 
God  be  thanked  that  they  hold  fast  to  all  that  is  pure, 
thinking,  in  the  midst  of  monstrous  crimes,  of  those 
things  which  are  lovely! 

The  Basel  Society  has  here  thirteen  main  stations 
which  extend  nearly  a  hundred  miles  into  the  interior. 
Here  there  are  sixty-three  European  missionaries.  The 
Christian  community  numbers  twelve  thousand. 

The  Gossner  Mission,  whose  chief  work  is  in  India, 
resolved  in  19 1 4  to  send  missionaries  to  Central  Ka- 
merun.  Just  before  the  outbreak  of  the  war  four 
missionaries  were  sent  out  to  make  preliminary  studies. 

On  the  Slave  Coast  the  North  German  or  Bremen 
Society  has  had  a  mission  since  1847.  This  society 
has  no  mission  school  of  its  own,  but  draws  its  workers 
from  the  mission  school  at  Basel.  Its  African  mission 
has  been  continued  only  at  enormous  sacrifice.  In 
fifty  years  sixty-five  men  and  women  died.  The  cli- 
mate is  dangerous,  the  hearts  of  the  natives  are  stub- 
born. The  territory  in  which  the  mission  is  situated 
is  partly  German  and  partly  English,  a  fact  which 
causes  not  only  political  but  linguistic  complications 
since  German  must  be  the  language  of  one  section, 
English  of  the  other. 


CENTRAL  CHINA   LUTHERAN  THEOLOGICAL   SEMINARY,   SHE- 
KOW,    HUPEH.    CHINA. 

CHAPEL    AND     MISSION     HOMES,     CHIKUNGSHAN.     CHINA. 
(UNITED    NORWEGIAN) 


THE  LUTHERAN   CHURCH   IN  AFRICA  129 

Nevertheless,  the  Bremen  missionaries  have  per- 
sisted. To-day  they  have  nine  stations  with  a  staff  of 
twenty-eight,  and  over  ten  thousand  native  Christians. 
A  thorough  study  has  been  made  of  the  language, 
customs  and  religion  of  the  people,  who  belong  to  the 
Evhe  tribe. 

Assisting  in  the  work  of  the  Bremen  Society  are 
deaconesses.  The  lives  of  these  godly  women  have  had 
a  marvelous  effect  especially  upon  the  native  women. 

South  Africa. 

By   South  Africa  we  mean  the  great 

n/r     ^"i.i°-  southern  portion  of  the  continent  ex- 

Many    Nations.  _  ^ 

tending  from  Cape  Town  up  to  the 
Zambesi  River,  which  flows  toward  the  east  and  the 
Congo  which  flows  toward  the  west.  Here,  in  ad- 
dition to  the  native  tribes  who  are  chiefly  Hottentots, 
Bushmen  and  Bantus,  Kaffirs  and  Zulus,  are  large 
settlements  of  whites,  who,  unable  to  go  beyond  this 
section  on  account  of  the  climate,  are  more  and  more 
steadily  making  the  country  their  own.  Their  pres- 
ence, as  may  easily  be  imagined,  complicates  and  makes 
immensely  difficult  all  mission  work.  To  this  fertile 
land,  rich  in  gold,  diamonds  and  other  minerals,  have 
gone  naturally  the  adventurous  and  in  many  cases  the 
wicked  of  other  nations.  There  have  been  already 
fearful  struggles  between  native  and  foreigner,  black 
and  white.  When  we  realize  that  among  the  five 
hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand  baptized  native 
Christians,  one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  are  Lu- 


130  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

therans,  our  interest  in  the  sadly  complicated  situa- 
tion becomes  keen. 

The  first  German  societj^  to  work  in 
The  Missionary  g^^^j^  ^^^.j^^  ^^^^  ^^^  Rhenish  which, 
i-'ress.  ' 

like  the   Basel   Society,   is  not  wholly 

Lutheran.  This  society  in  1829  established  stations 
first  in  Nama  Land,  then  in  Herero  Land,  then  in 
Ovambo  Land.  Here  we  have  another  record  of  op- 
position, of  native  wars,  of  indifference.  The  mission 
station  lies  almost  entirely  in  the  German  colony.  It 
has  in  all  fifty-two  missionaries.  The  number  of 
Christians  is  now  more  than  twenty-six  thousand. 
Here  also,  the  Germans  have  translated  and  taught 
with  the  greatest  care.  The  press  is  constantly  used  to 
bind  together  the  scattered  Christians  in  the  sparsely 
settled  districts,  two  monthly  religious  papers,  one 
in  the  Nama,  the  other  in  the  Herero  language,  being 
published. 

A  Labor  Says  Doctor  Warneck:  "It  has  been  a 

Not  in  Vain.  laborious  work  of  patience  that  the 
missionaries  have  done  in  these  great  countries,  in- 
dustrially so  poor, — a  work  made  difficult  by  the  great 
inconstancy  of  the  Hottentots  and  the  strong  opposition 
of  the  Herero,  as  well  as  by  the  entanglements  of  war, 
— and  more  than  once  in  Herero  Land  the  workers 
were  on  a  point  of  withdrawing.  But  German  fidelity 
at  last  carried  the  day.  Now  the  whole  of  the  great 
region  from  the  Orange  River  to  beyond  Walfisch  Bay, 
far  into  the  interior  of  Great  Nama  Land  and  Herero 
Land  and  even  up  to  Ovambo  Land  is  covered  with  a 


THE  LUTHERAN   CHURCH   IN  AFRICA  131 

network  of  stations.  All  the  points  that  could  be  oc- 
cupied have  been  made  mission  stations  and  the  whole 
population  has  been  brought  under  the  educative  and 
civilizing  influence  of  Christianity." 

The  Rhenish  Society  has  also  a  mission  in  the 
southern  part  of  Cape  Colony.  Its  first  station  was 
at  Stellenbosch,  near  Cape  Town,  established  in  1829. 

Tiie  society  has  now  in  all  a  membership  of  twenty- 
one  thousand  four  hundred  Christians.  A  number  of 
its  churches  are  financially  independent.  Here  as 
everywhere  there  are  discouraging  backslidings  into 
the  old  sins  of  drunkenness  and  impurity,  but  even 
so  the  light  has  shone  and  will  shine  with  increasing 
brightness. 

The  Discovery  The  Berlin  Missionary  Society  began 
of  Diamonds,  work  in  South  Africa  in  1834,  first 
among  the  Koranna  people  between  the  Orange  and 
Vaal  Rivers,  and  later,  in  1838,  in  Cape  Colony  itself, 
its  first  station  being  at  Peniel,  At  first  few  foreigners 
penetrated  into  this  district  between  the  Orange  and 
the  Vaal,  but  in  1870  when  diamonds  were  discovered, 
Cape  Colony,  in  spite  of  the  protests  of  the  Orange 
Free  State  to  which  it  had  belonged,  annexed  it.  At 
once  thousands  of  adventurers  poured  in,  both  black 
and  white.  In  i860  the  missionaries  went  north  into 
the  Transvaal. 

The  Berlin  Mission  is  the  largest  in  South  Africa. 
Its  last  report  names  fifty-eight  stations  and  one 
thousand  sub-stations.  The  Christian  community, 
which   numbers    sixty   thousand    is   organized    in    five 


132  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

synods  of  Cape  Colony,  the  Zulu-Xosa  district,  Orange 
River  Colony,  South  Transvaal  and  North  Transvaal. 

Among  the  notable  Lutheran  missionaries  of  the 
Berlin  South  African  mission  have  been  Merensky,  a 
famous  writer  upon  missionary  subjects,  Griitzerj  who 
gave  forty-nine  years  of  devoted  service  to  the  mis- 
sion, WuraSj  who  gave  fifty  and  Doctor  D.  Kropf  who 
did  valuable  work  as  a  translator. 

Another  Berlin  missionary  of  large  achievement  de- 
scribes his  early  experience,  writing  in   1889: 

"After  having  worked  myself  weary  through  the 
week,  when  on  Sunday  I  saw  these  wild  men  of  the 
wilderness  sitting  before  me,  absolute  obtuseness  to- 
ward everything  divine,  together  with  mockery  and 
brutal  lusts  written  on  their  faces,  I  sometimes  lost  all 
disposition  to  preach.  Those  fluent  young  preachers 
who  not  only  like  to  be  heard,  but  to  hear  themselves, 
ought  to  be  sometimes  required  to  ascend  the  pulpit 
before  such  an  assemblage.  There  is  not  the  least 
thing  there  to  lift  up  the  preacher  of  the  Divine  Word 
or  to  come  to  the  help  of  his  weakness.  As  when  a 
green,  fresh  branch  laid  before  the  door  of  a  glowing 
oven  shrivels  up  at  once,  such  has  sometimes  been  my 
experience  when  I  had  come  full  of  warm  devotion, 
before  the  Kaffirs,  and  undertaken  to  preach.  I  have 
sometimes  wished  that  I  had  never  become  a  mission- 
ary. Once  the  hour  of  Sunday  services  again  ap- 
proached. The  sun  was  fearfully  hot,  and  I  felt  weary 
in  body  and  soul.  My  unbelieving  heart  said:  'Your 
preaching  is  for  nothing',  and  Beelzebub  added  a  lusty 


THE  LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  AFRICA  133 

amen.     The  Kaffirs  were  sitting  in  the  hut  waiting 

for  me.     'I'll  not  preach  to-day',  said  I  to  my  wife, 

but  she  looked  at  me  with  her  angelic  eyes,  lifted  her 

finger,  and  said  gravely:  'William,  you  will  do  your 

duty.     You  will  go  and  preach'.     I  seized  Bible  and 

hymn-book,  and   loitered   to  church  like  an  idle  boy 

creeping  unwillingly  to   school.      I   began,   preluding 

on  the  violin,  the  Kaffirs  grunting.     I  prayed,   read 

my  text,   and  began   to  preach  with  about   as  much 

fluency    as    stuttering    Moses.      Yet    soon    the    Lord 

loosened  the  band  of  my  tongue,  and  the  fire  of  the 

Holy  Ghost  awakened  me  out  of  my  sluggishness.     I 

spoke  with  such  fervor  concerning  the  Lamb  of  God, 

that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world,   that  if  that 

sermon  has  quickened  no  heart  of  a  hearer  yet  my  own 

was  profoundly  moved." 

The    writer,  Missionary    Posselt,  lived    to    baptize 

one  thousand  Kaffirs. 

One  of  the  interesting  developments  in 

of  Tropical  ^^^  Berlin  Society  mission  has  been  the 

Medical  great  decrease  in  sickness,  owing  to  the 

Treatment.  .  .     ,  i-     i 

progress  of  tropical  medical  treatment. 

No  employee  of  the  society,  whether  missionary,  wife 
of  missionary  or  artisan,  is  sent  to  Africa  without  a 
thorough  course  in  tropical  hygiene.  To  those  faith- 
ful scientists  who  discovered  the  cause  of  malaria  is 
ascribed  the  success  of  the  Panama  canal;  no  less  are 
they  to  be  thanked  for  the  continued  life  and  work  of 
many  missionaries. 


134  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

The  Hermannshiirg  Mission  entered  South  Africa 
in  1854.  Its  field  is  located  among  the  Zulus  in  Natal 
where  there  are  twenty-one  stations  and  twelve  thous- 
and eight  hundred  Christians,  and  among  the 
Bechunas  in  the  Transvaal  where  there  are  tvvent}- 
eight  stations  and  sixtj^-one  thousand  Christians. 
The  Ship  We  have  learned  in  Chapter  II  of  the 

"Candace".  origin  of   the   Hermannsburg   Mission 

in  the  mind  and  heart  of  Louis  Harms.  After  a  year 
or  two,  a  number  of  German  sailors,  recently  con- 
verted, sought  admission  to  the  training  school,  and 
at  their  suggestion  a  ship  was  built  and  named  the 
'Candace.'  This  ship  was  to  carry  the  Gospel  to 
South  Africa,  and  on  October  8,  1853,  she  sailed 
from  Hamburg.  On  board  were  sailors,  colonists  and 
missionaries  who  were  to  found  a  missionary  colony. 
To  each  separate  class  Pastor  Harms  gave  separate 
directions,  but  upon  all  he  urged  the  necessity  for 
prayer.  "Begin  all  your  work  with  praj'er;  when  the 
storm  rises,  pray,  when  the  billows  rage  round  the 
ship,  pray;  when  sin  comes,  pray;  and  when  the  devil 
tempts  you,  pray.  So  long  as  you  pray  it  will  go  well 
with  you,  body  and  soul." 

The  missionary  colony  hoped  to  settle  among  the 
Galla  tribes,  but  were  driven  away  by  the  Mohamme- 
dans, therefore  they  returned  to  Natal.  On  the  19th 
of  September,  1854,  they  established  their  first  station 
near  Grej^town,  giving  it  the  dear  name  of  Hermanns- 
burg. Each  artisan  began  to  practice  his  trade,  a  house 
was  built,  and  before  three  months  had  passed 
the  first  converts  of  the  Zulu  church  were  baptized. 


THE  LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  AFRICA  135 

A  Truly  Lu-  ^^  Lutheran  mission  has  so  intense  a 
theran  Mission.  Lutheran  spirit  as  the  Hermannsburg 
mission,  whose  founder  wished  all  the  Lutheran 
symbols  and  especially  the  beautiful  Lutheran  liturgy 
to  be  recognized  and  used  by  mission  churches  as  well 
as  by  churches  in  the  fatherland. 

The  good  ship  "Candace,"  one  of  the  most  famous 
and  probably  the  first  of  the  missionary  ships  of  the 
world,  made  many  journeys.  Not  the  least  interesting, 
at  least  to  those  concerned,  was  her  second  when  she 
carried  to  Natal  reinforcements  and  additional  colon- 
ists, among  them  a  wife  for  each  of  the  missionaries 
who  had  made  the  pioneer  journey. 

The  Hermannsburg  mission  has  not  lacked  a  bap- 
tism of  blood.  In  1883  thirteen  stations  were  de- 
stroyed and  Missionary  Schrocder  met  a  martyr's 
death. 

The  Hanover  Free  Evangelical  Lutheran  Church 
Missionary  Society,  branched  off  from  the  Hermanns- 
burg Mission  in  1892.  It  has  six  stations  in  Natal 
and  Zululand  with  about  twenty-two  thousand  Chris- 
tians, and  among  the  Bechunas  in  the  Transvaal  three 
stations  with  thirty-six  hundred  Christians. 

East  Africa. 

German  The  colonial  expansion  of  Germany  in 

East  Africa.  the  eighties  Stimulated  missionary  in- 
terest and  activity  in  its  newly  acquired  possessions  in 
East  Africa,  where  is  situated  the  largest  and  most 
thickly  populated  of  the  German  Colonies,  with  about 


136  THE  STORY  OP  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

seven  and  a  half  million  inhabitants.  The  mission  field 
is  a  difficult  one,  the  natives  belonging  to  one  of  the 
lowest  human  groups.  Hard  of  heart,  slow  to  give  up 
their  heathen  customs,  especially  that  of  polygamy, 
affected  in  some  sections  by  Islam,  they  are  difficult  to 
impress  and  reluctant  to  be  won.  Yet  among  them  a 
harvest  has  been  reaped. 

The  East  African  mission  field  is  inseparably  con- 
nected with  the  name  of  a  Lutheran,  John  Ludwig 
Krapfj  who  in  the  employ  of  an  English  missionary 
society  founded  Christian  missions  in  this  section. 
A  Call  to  *Krapf  was  born  in  1810  near  Tiibin- 

Service.  gen  in  Germany.     A  fondness  for  geo- 

graphy coupled  with  the  reading  of  a  pamphlet  describ- 
ing the  spread  of  missions  among  the  heathen  impelled 
him  when  he  was  a  mere  boy  to  prepare  himself  for 
missionary  work.  After  studying  at  Basel,  he  became 
pastor  of  a  congregation,  but  he  could  not  shut  out 
from  his  heart  the  needs  of  unchristianized  lands.  "In 
the  needs  of  my  congregation  I  recognized  those  of 
non-Christian  lands  in  a  measure  that  affected  me  very 
deeply;  in  their  sorrow  I  recognized  the  wretchedness 
of  the  heathen.  The  grace  which  I  mj-self  enjoyed 
and  which  I  commended  to  my  own  people,  was,  I  felt, 
for  the  heathen  as  well,  but  there  might  be  no  one 
to  proclaim  it  to  them.  Here,  everyone  without  dif- 
ficulty may  find  the  way  of  life;  in  those  lands  there 
may  be  no  one  to  show  the  way." 


*The  account  of  John  Ludwig  Krapf  is  taken  largely 
from  the  Rev.  F.  Wilkmson,  Missionary  Revieiv  of  the 
World,  November,   1892. 


ADMINISTRATION     BUILDING     AND     CLASS    ROOMS.     KYUSHU 
GAKUIN,   KUMAMOTO,  JAPAN. 

PASTOR'S    RESIDENCE,    CHAPEL,    AND    STUDENT    DORMITORY, 

TOKYO.      AMERICAN   MISSIONARIES,    NATIVE    PASTORS 

AND    WORKERS    WITH    WIVES    AND    CHILDREN. 


THE  LUTHERAN  CHURCH   IN  AFRICA  137 

A  Slave  Following   his    inclination,    he   offered 

Market.  himself   for   missionary  work  and   was 

sent  by  the  Church  Missionary  Society  of  England, 
which  used  Basel  missionaries  in  the  work,  to  its  Abys- 
sinian Mission.  Leaving  England  in  1837,  he  reached 
Alexandria  and  started  up  the  Nile.  At  Cairo  he 
had  his  first  glimpse  of  Africa's  great  curse,  the  traf- 
fic in  human  beings.  He  visited  the  slave  markets  and 
there  saw  the  wretched  creatures  men,  women  and  chil- 
dren, lying  fainting  under  the  burning  sun,  to  be 
examined  like  cattle  by  purchasers.  Like  Abraham 
Lincoln  on  his  journey  down  the  Mississippi,  Krapf 
vowed  eternal  hatred  for  the  hideous  institution  of 
human  slavery. 

The  First  Journeying  to  Adoa  in  the  highlands 

Repulse.  of  Abyssinia,  Krapf  joined  other  mis- 

sionaries trained  at  Basel  and  employed  by  the  Church 
Missionary  Society,  Blumhardt  and  Isenberg  by  name, 
but  they  were  soon  driven  away  by  the  ruling  prince. 
Thus  repulsed,  Krapf  determined  to  go  to  Shoa  in  the 
south  of  Abyssinia,  and,  accompanied  by  Isenberg,  he 
arrived  there  after  a  severe  illness  in  June,  1859.  There, 
when  Isenberg  had  returned  to  Egypt,  Krapf  worked 
for  several  years  alone. 

In  1842,  he  left  Shoa  to  meet  his  fu- 
Once  More  the  ^^^^  ^^jf  j^^^j^^  Dietrich,  in  Egypt 
Door   Closed.  '  .  '  ^^  ^ 

and    to   help   on   their   way   two    new 

brethren  who  had  arrived  on  the  coast.  Travelling 
on  foot,  ill,  fatigued  and  several  times  set  upon  by 
robbers,   he   reached  the  coast  where  he  expected   to 


138  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

find  the  two  missionaries,  only  to  learn  that  they 
had  been  there  and  had  gone  back  to  Egypt.  When 
he  with  his  bride  returned  to  Shoa  they  found  that 
its  ruler,  like  the  ruler  of  Adoa,  had  closed  the  kingdom 
against  him. 

The  First  The    need    of    the    Gallas,    a    nation 

Sacrifice.  to  the  south  to  whom  no  Gospel  mes- 

senger had  been  sent,  had  lain  heavily  upon  the  heart 
of  Krapf  and  now,  driven  from  Shoa,  he  tried  to  reacM 
them,  but  found  it  impossible.  Thereupon  he  deter- 
mined to  do  what  he  could  by  circulating  the  Scrip- 
tures. Joining  himself  to  a  caravan,  he  started  for 
the  interior,  with  him  his  young  wife,  whose  new- 
born baby  was  in  the  course  of  a  few  weeks  buried 
in  the  desert. 

,,_,       _  Alas,  even  this  long  journey  and  these 

"Cast  Down  '  . 

But  Not  trials  were  in  vain,  for  once  more  was 
Destroyed."  j^^^^^  forbidden  to  proceed  with  his 
work.  The  brave  man,  disheartened,  but  not  com- 
pletely cast  dovv'n,  wrote  home:  "Abyssinia  will  not 
soon  again  enjoy  the  time  of  grace  she  has  so  shame- 
fully slighted It  is  a  consolation  to  us  and  to 

dear  friends  of  the  mission  to  know  that  over  eight 
thousand  copies  of  the  Scriptures  have  found  their 
way  into  Abyssinia.  These  will  not  all  be  lost  or 
remain  without  a  blessing.  Faith  speaks  thus:  Though 
every  mission  should  disappear  in  a  day  and  leave  no 
trace  behind,  I  would  still  cleave  to  mission  Avork  with 
all  my  prayers,  my  labors,  my  gifts,  with  my  body 
and  soul;  for  there  is  the  command  of  the  Lord  Jesu> 


THE  LUTHERAN  CHURCH   IN  AFRICA  139 

Christ,  and  where  that  is  there  is  also  His  proaiise 
and  His  final  victory." 

.    Ch  •  t"  Krapf  now  determined   to  attempt  to 

Grave  in  gain  a  footing  on  the  coast,   in  order 

East  Africa.         ^^^^^  ^1^^^.^  ^^  j.g^^|^  ^j^^  Gallas,  whose 

language  he  had  learned.  With  this  object  in  view, 
he  sailed,  with  his  wife,  in  an  Arab  vessel  from  Aden 
in  November,  1843.  Strong  headwinds  and  a  heavy 
sea  compelled  them  to  return  to  Aden.  In  spite  of 
their  exertions,  the  water  gained  upon  them  in  their 
leaky  boat,  and  on  reaching  the  entrance  to  the  har- 
bor the  land  wind  drove  back  the  vessel  toward  the 
open  ocean.  Half  an  hour  after  they  were  taken  from 
the  vessel  it  sank.  Eight  days  later  Krapf  sailed  again, 
and  after  four  or  five  weeks'  journey  arrived  at  Mom- 
basa. Scarcely,  however,  had  he  begun  to  work  at 
Mombasa  when  he  was  called  to  pass  through  another 
sorrow,  in  the  loss  of  his  wife.  In  prospect  of  death 
she  prayed  for  relatives,  for  the  mission,  for  East 
Africa,  and  for  the  Sultan,  that  God  would  incline  his 
heart  to  promote  the  eternal  welfare  of  his  subjects. 
The  next  day  she  appeared  much  better,  but  the  day 
following  much  worse,  while  her  husband  himself  was 
so  weakened  by  fever  as  to  be  obliged  to  leave  the 
care  of  her  almost  entirely  to  others.  The  next  day 
she  breathed  her  last,  and  on  the  following  morning — 
Sunday — they  buried  her,  according  to  her  wish,  on 
the  mainland  in  the  territory  of  the  Wanika,  her  new- 
born   daughter   by   her   side.      Krapf,    even    amid    all 


140  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

these  trials,  wrote  in  a  letter  to  the  secretary  of  the 
missionary  society:  "Tell  the  committee  that  in  East 
Africa  there  is  the  lonely  grave  of  one  member  of  the 
mission  connected  with  your  society.  This  is  an  indi- 
cation that  you  have  begun  the  conflict  in  this  part  of 
the  world;  and  since  the  conquests  of  the  Church  are 
won  over  the  graves  of  many  of  its  members,  you  may 
be  all  the  more  assured  that  the  time  has  come  v/hen 
you  are  called  to  work  for  the  conversion  of  Africa. 
Think  not  of  the  victims  who  in  this  glorious  war- 
fare may  suffer  or  fall ;  only  press  forward  until  East 
and  West  Africa  are  united  in  Christ." 

In  1846  he  had  the  joy  of  welcoming 
Two    Friends.  ,  ,,  ,   ,  ^      1  t   . 

a  leilow  laborer,  a  i^utheran,  Jonann 

Rebmann.  The  two  men  were  exactly  opposite  in  na- 
ture. Krapf,  restless  and  energetic,  entertained  far- 
reaching  plans,  and  even  saw  in  imagination  a  chain 
of  missions  stretching  from  Mombasa  to  the  Niger, 
and  thus  connecting  east  and  west  Africa;  Rebmann, 
on  the  contrary,  believed  in  settling  in  one  place  and 
staying  there.  Nevertheless,  the  two  men  worked  in 
harmony.  When  they  finished  the  building  of  a  house 
in  a  village  not  far  from  the  sea-coast,  Krapf  felt  that 
the  first  step  toward  the  dark  interior  had  been  taken. 
After  twelve  years  of  labor,  Krapf  visited  Europe. 
When  he  returned  to  Africa  he  took  with  him  two 
missionaries  and  three  mechanics,  an  undertaking  which 
was  not  altogether  happy.  But  in  the  midst  of  dis- 
couragement he  took  heart. 


THE  LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  AFRICA  141 

Still  "And  now  let  me  look  backward  and 

Undismayed.  forward.  In  the  past  what  do  I  see? 
Scarcely  more  than  the  remnant  of  a  defeated  army. 
You  know  I  had  the  task  of  strengthening  the  East 
African  Mission  with  three  missionaries  and  three 
handicraftsmen;  but  where  are  the  missionaries?  One 
remained  in  London,  as  he  did  not  consider  himself 
appointed  to  East  Africa;  the  second  remained  at 
Aden,  in  doubt  about  the  English  Church;  the  third 
died  on  May  tenth  of  nervous  fever.  As  to  the  three 
mechanics,  they  are  ill  of  fever,  lying  between  life  and 
death,  and  instead  of  being  a  help  look  to  us  for  help 
and  attention ;  and  yet  I  stand  by  my  assertion  that 
Africa  must  be  conquered  by  missionaries;  there  must 
be  a  chain  of  mission  stations  between  the  east  and 
west,  though  thousands  of  the  combatants  fall  upon 
the  left  hand  and  ten  thousand  on  the  right  .  .  .  From 
the  sanctuary  of  God  a  voice  says  to  me,  'Fear  not; 
life  comes  through  death,  resurrection  through  decay, 
the  establishment  of  Christ's  kingdom  through  the 
discomfiture  of  human  undertakings.  Instead  of  al- 
lowing yourself  to  be  discouraged  at  the  defeat  of 
your  force,  go  to  work  yourself.  Do  not  rely  on 
human  help,  but  on  the  living  God,  to  whom  it  is  all 
the  same  to  serve  by  little  or  by  much.  .  .  .  Believe, 
love,  fight,  be  not  weary  for  His  name's  sake,  and  you 
will  see  the  glory  of  God.'  " 

Twice  Krapf  tried  to  penetrate  into  the  distant 
interior  but  was  both  times  compelled  to  return  with- 
out  establishing   missions.      In    1853   he   returned   to 


142  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

Europe  on  account  of  ill  health,  but  the  next  year 
set  out  to  Africa  once  more,  only  to  be  compelled  on 
account  of  weakness  to  give  up  the  journey. 

Once  more,  however,  he  visited  the  country  of  his 
love.  Wishing  to  open  a  mission  in  East  Africa 
the  Methodist  Free  Churches  requested  him  to  ac- 
company their  missionaries  and  to  assist  them  in  estab- 
lishing the  mission.  He  agreed  to  go  and  said  of  the 
new  station:  "The  station  Ribe  will  in  due  time  cele- 
brate the  triumph  of  the  mission  in  the  conversion  of 
the  Wanika,  though  I  may  be  in  the  grave.  The  Lord 
does  not  allow  His  Word  to  return  unto  Him  void." 
Returning  to  Europe,  Krapf  continued 

t^.}^^S°^?  ,  to  work  and  to  pray  for  missions  until, 

Life  Ended.  ^     ■' 

in    November,     1881,    he    was    found 

dead,  kneeling  in  the  attitude  of  prayer. 

The  names  of  Krapf  and  Rebmann  are 

The  Missionary  associated  not  only  in  heroic  mission- 
as  Explorer.  ■' 

ary  labors  but  in  important  linguistic 

work  and  most  valuable  geographic  discoveries.    When 

they  declared  that  there  existed  in  the  center  of  Africa 

snow-capped  mountains  and  an  inland  sea,  they  were 

laughed  at,  but  as  a  result  exploring  expeditions  were 

sent  out  to  discover  that  what  the  missionaries  claimed 

was  true.     The  American  poet  Bayard  Taylor,  struck 

by  the  marvelous  variety  of  temperature  and  verdure 

upon  Mt.  Kilimanjaro,  whose  base  was  surrounded  by 

tropical   forests   and   whose   summit   was   wrapped    in 

snow,  celebrated  it  in  verse. 


THE  LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  AFRICA  143 

"Hail  to  thee,  monarch  of  African  mountains, 
Remote,  inaccessible,  silent  and  lone — 
Who,  from  the  heart  of  the  tropical  fervors, 
Liftest  to  heaven  thine  alien  snows, 
Feeding  forever  the  fountains  that  make  thee 
Father  of  Nile  and  creator  of  Egypt! 
I  see  thee  supreme  in  the  midst  of  thy  co-mates, 
Standing  alone  'twixt  the  earth  and  the  heavens, 
Heir  of  the  sunset  and  herald  of  morn. 
Zone  above  zone,  to  thy  shoulders  of  granite, 
The  climates  of  earth  are  displayed  as  an  index, 
Giving  the  scope  of  the  book  of  creation. 
There  in  the  wandering  airs  of  the  tropics 
Shivers  the  aspen,  still   dreaming  of  cold: 
There  stretches  the  oak,  from  the  loftiest  ledges, 
His  arms  to  the  far-away  lands  of  his  brothers. 
And  the  pine  looks  down  on  his  rival,  the  palm." 
David  This  section  of  Africa  cannot  be  passed 

Livingstone.  without  a  mention  of  that  other  hero, 
David  Livingstone,  the  missionary,  scientist,  and  ex- 
plorer, who  said,  "I  am  tired  of  discovery  if  no  fruit 
follows  it",  and  "The  end  of  geographical  achievement 
is  only  the  beginning  of  missionary  undertaking",  who 
was  a  king  among  men  and  who  considered  it  his  only 
glory  that  he  was  a  "poor,  poor  imitation  of  Christ." 

There  is  a  very  particular  reason  for  including  a 
mention  of  Livingstone  in  a  history  of  Lutheran  mis- 
sions, because  his  impulse  to  become  a  missionary  w^as 
directly  inspired  by  a  Lutheran,  Karl  Frederick  Giitz- 
laff,  w^hom  we  shall  study  in  Chapter  V.     Livingstone 


144  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

was  interested  in  missions  and  had  resolved  "that  he 
would  give  to  the  cause  of  missions  all  that  he  might 
earn  beyond  what  was  required  for  his  subsistence." 
When  he  read  Giitzlaff's  appeal  on  behalf  of  China 
he  determined  to  give  himself.  For  various  reasons 
Africa  rather  than  China  was  determined  upon  for 
the  scene  of  his  labor. 

The  first  German  movement  toward  a  missionary 
possession  of  the  German  colonies  in  Africa  was  in 
Bavaria  where  a  group  of  men  who  had  been  influenced 
by  Krapf,  planned  a  Wakamba  mission.  Their  society 
is  generally  known  by  the  name  of  their  headquarters, 
Bielefeld.  One  of  the  leading  spirits  and  a  director 
of  this  society  was  Bodelschwingh,  the  famous  leader 
of  Germany's  Inner  Mission  movement.  Bodel- 
schwingh, like  Francke,  was  an  illustration  of  the 
fact  that  they  who  do  mission  work  at  home  do  also 
mission  work  abroad. 

The  principal  field  of  the  Bielefeld  Society  is  Tanga 
and  the  country  lying  behind  it.  In  1907  it  began  a 
new  mission  in  the  northwest  corner  of  German  East 
Africa,  a  densely  populated  district  between  Lakes 
Victoria  Nyanza,  Kivu  and  Tanganyika.  In  its 
two  fields  the  mission  has  thirty-five  missionaries  and 
about  tv.o  thousand  Christians. 

Careful  and  T\\t  careful   and   painstaking  methods 

Painstaking.  of  the  German  missionaries  are  indi- 
cated in  a  description  of  the  winning  of  their  first 
converts  in  their  newer  field.  Three  years  after  they 
had   begun   to  work,   a  3'outh   appeared    for  baptism. 


THE  LUTHERAN   CHURCH  IN  AFRICA  145 

He  was  followed  by  six  other  young  men.  Then  a 
number  of  girls  asked  for  instruction  and  presently 
a  leprous  woman  whose  interest  had  been  gained  by 
the  tender  care  of  the  missionaries.  For  more  than 
a  year  these  inquirers  received  instruction.  At  the  end 
of  that  time  four  young  men  and  three  young  women 
were  considered  worthy  of  baptism. 

The  Berlin  Society  began  work  in  1891  in  the  ex- 
treme southwest  corner  of  the  German  possessions. 
Gradually  extending,  it  has  now  fifty-seven  mission- 
aries and  about  four  thousand  native  Christians.  The 
mission  field  lies  among  the  Konde  tribes  at  the 
northern  end  of  Lake  Nyassa. 

The  Leipsic  Society  had  begun  its  work  before  the 
possession  of  this  section  by  Germany.  The  people 
among  whom  it  labors  belong  to  the  Chaga  tribes  at 
the  foot  of  snow-capped  Mt.  Kilimanjaro.  Its  sta- 
tions extend  also  southward  and  westward.  It  has 
in  all  twenty-eight  missionaries  and  about  twenty- 
seven   hundred    Christians. 

The  Breklum  Society  began  work  in  191 1  in  the 
Uhha  country  on  the  western  shore  of  Lake  Tan- 
ganyika where  it  has  three  missionaries. 

The  Neukirchen  Society  has  a  mission  in  German 
territory  in  Urundi  between  Lake  Tanganyika  and 
Lake  Kivu  with  five  missionaries,  and  also  in  British 
territory  near  the  mouth  of  the  Pomo  River,  where 
there  are  nine  missionaries. 

In  Africa  as  well  as  in  India  there  is  a  long  list 
of  faithful  Germans  who  worked  in  the  missions  of 


146  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

Other  churches.  Among  them  Nylander  went  as  a 
missionary  of  the  English  Church  Missionary  Society 
to  Sierra  Leone  in  1806.  Until  his  death  in  1825  he 
remained  at  his  post,  never  returning  home  for  a 
furlough.  Doctor  Schon  reduced  the  Hausa  language 
to  order  and  wrote  for  it  grammars,  dictionaries 
and  reading  lessons.  Upon  him  the  French  In- 
stitute conferred  a  gold  medal  for  his  brilliant 
philological  work.  Livingstone  declared  that  Schon's 
name  would  live  long  after  his  own  had  been  for- 
gotten. Sigis77iund  Kolle  compiled  the  Polyglotta 
Africana,  a  comparison  of  a  hundred  African  dialects. 
He  was  first  a  missionary  in  Sierra  Leone  and  after- 
wards in  Egypt,  Constantinople  and  Palestine. 

Another    German    Lutheran   who   has 

A     ut  eran  \)qqi^   employed   by  other  societies  was 

in  Jerusalem.  t-     j  j 

Samuel  Gobat,  who  was  born  in  Berne, 
Switzerland,  in  1799.  When  he  was  nineteen  years 
old  he  entered  the  Basel  Missionary  Institute.  After 
he  had  thoroughly  prepared  himself  there  and  in  Paris 
in  the  Arabic,  Ethiopic  and  Amharic  languages,  he 
offered  himself  to  the  Church  missionary  Society  of 
England  and  was  sent  to  begin  in  1826  a  mission  in 
Abyssinia.  Before  he  sailed  for  his  mission  field  he 
received  Lutheran  ordination.  For  three  years  he 
traveled  extensively  in  proclaiming  the  Gospel  both 
to  the  priests  who  ministered  to  the  sadly  degenerate 
Abyssinian  Church  and  to  the  people,  then  he  was  com- 
pelled to  leave  on  account  of  ill  health.  He  continued 
his   missionary   activity   by   superintending   the    trans- 


THE  LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  AFRICA  147 

lating  of  the  Bible  into  Arabic  at  the  Church  Mission 
in  Malta;  in  1845  he  was  made  Vice  President  of  the 
Protestant  College  at  Malta.  Subsequently  he  was 
appointed  Bishop  of  Jerusalem,  his  election  to  this  im- 
portant position  being  preceded  by  his  entrance  into 
the  English  Church.  He  died  in  Jerusalem  in  1879, 
"notable  for  his  piety,  vigor,  tact  and  good  judgment." 

Scandinavian  Societies. 

In  1844  the  Nonce ffian  Missionary  Society  sent 
Hans  Schreuder  as  a  missionary  to  Zululand.  Here 
at  Umpumulo  he  and  thirty  companions  started  a 
mission.  After  twenty-five  years'  constant  and  faith- 
ful work,  the  number  of  Christians  was  two  hundred 
and  forty-five.  Today  there  are  five  thousand  seven 
hundred  church  members  divided  among  thirteen 
stations.  The  training  school  carries  its  students 
carefully  through  a  nine  months'  course  in  the  Gospels, 
the  Catechism  and  Church  history,  besides  providing 
exercise  in  preaching  and  instruction  concerning  the 
care  of  souls.  The  pupils  go  out  two  by  two  on 
Sundays  to  preach  in  heathen  kraals.  Their  in- 
structor says  of  them,  "For  diligence,  attention  and 
Christian  walk,  I  can  give  them  the  highest  praise. 
It  has  been  a  delight  to  work  among  them,  for  they 
seem  to  grasp  more  and  more  the  central  teaching 
of  Christianity." 

In  1873  Hans  Schreuder.  the  pioneer,  left  the  ser- 
vice of  the  society  to  establish  the  Norivegian  Church 
Mission,  which  now  has  four  stations  and  two  thousand 


148  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

Christians.     Schreuder  was  the  father  of  Norwegian 

missions.     His  appeal,  "A  Few  Words  to  the  Church 

of  Norway,"  in  1842,  aroused  the  country  to  a  sense  of 

its  missionary  obligation. 

The  Swedish  State  Church  established 
Co-operation.        .         _    ,  .    .         •       o       ,       «  r  • 

m    1070    a    mission    in    bouth    Africa 

among  the  Zulus,  selecting  this  spot  because  of  its 
nearness  to  the  Norwegian  mission  from  which  the 
Swedes  expected  advice  and  co-operation.  In  this  ex- 
pectation they  were  not  disappointed.  In  sympathy  and 
collaboration  with  them  are  also  the  neighboring  Ber- 
lin missionaries.  A  common  hymn  book,  prayer  book 
and  catechism  are  used.  The  native  pastors  of  the 
three  missions  are  trained  by  the  Swedes,  the  teachers 
by  the  Norwegian  and  the  evangelists  by  the  Germans. 

Oscarberg  is  the  oldest  station.  The  Zulu  war  and 
the  Boer  war  both  caused  great  loss  and  suffering  to 
the  mission.  The  work  was  extended  in  1902  to 
South  Rhodesia.  In  all  its  stations  the  mission  has 
about  six  thousand  native  Christians. 

In  Abyssinia  and  extending  into  British  East  Africa 
is  the  mission  of  the  Swedish  National  Society.  To 
this  field  the  society  was  directed  by  Louis  Harms  in 
1865.  Its  people,  whom  the  missionary-explorer  Krapf 
longed  to  reach,  are  Gallas,  a  vigorous  and  superior 
African  race,  one  of  the  few  who  have  not  been  in- 
fluenced by  Mohammedanism.  Like  Krapf,  the  Swedes 
hoped  to  have  access  to  these  people  through  the 
Abyssinian  Church.  To  their  hopes  was  put  a  cruel 
period  by  the  murder  of  one  of  their  missionaries.     In 


THE  LUTHERAN   CHURCH  IN  AFRICA  149 

1 88 1  a  second  effort  was  made  to  reach  them.  Prince 
Meneh'k  of  Shoa  promised  free  passage  and  also 
Negus  of  Abyssinia,  but  both  broke  their  word. 
Finally  slaves  who  were  carried  from  the  Galla  coun- 
try were  trained  by  the  persistent  missionaries  and  sent 
back.  Among  them,  Onesimus  Nesib,  who  was  bap- 
tized in  1872,  has  translated  the  wdiole  Bible  into  the 
Galla  language  and  has  written  various  Christian 
books  and  a  large  dictionary. 

The  Eritrea  station  of  the  Swedish  National  Society 
is  in  the  Italian  colony  of  that  name  on  the  Red  Sea. 
Here  the  missionary  press,  printing  in  seven  languages, 
is  busily  at  work.  To  the  natives  of  these  parts  the 
missionaries  have  given  their  first  written  language. 
Boarding  schools,  day  schools  and  a  hospital  are  among 
the  mission  enterprises. 

A  German  missionary  who  visited  Finland  in  1867 
roused  among  the  Lutherans  there  an  interest  in  Africa. 
As  a  result  the  Finnish  Lutheran  Missionary  Society 
established  a  mission  among  the  Ovambo  people,  near 
the  great  mission  of  the  Rhenish  Society.  For 
thirteen  years  their  missionaries  labored  without  a 
single  convert.  Then  the  rulers  ceased  to  oppose  mis- 
sion work  and  the  mission  began  to  succeed.  In  nine 
stations  are  two  thousand  eight  hundred  Christians. 

After  long  instruction  the  King  of  Ovamboland  was 
baptized  in  1912  and  dying  shortly  after  gave  testi- 
mony to  his  faith  upon  his  death-bed.  Subsequently 
his  successor  was  publicly  baptized  together  with  fifty- 
six  of  his  subjects. 


150  the  story  of  lutheran  missions 

Norwegians  in  Madagascar. 

The  French  island  of  Madagascar  lies 

Planting.  ,  ,  ^      ,  .  . 

to   the   southeast   oi   the   continent   or 

Africa  and  has  a  Malay  population  of  about  four 
hundred  thousand.  Work  was  begun  in  1818  bj^  Eng- 
lish missionaries  with  the  approval  of  King  Radama, 
who  acknowledged  the  suzerainty  of  England.  In- 
terrupted for  some  months  by  the  death  of  most  of  the 
pioneer  party,  the  mission  was  recommenced  in  the 
year  1820,  in  the  capital  city,  Antananarivo,  in  the 
interior  highland,  and  was  carried  on  with  much  suc- 
cess until  the  year  1835,  when  the  persecuting  queen, 
Ranavalona  I,  began  severe  measures  against  Christi- 
anity, and  all  the  missionaries  were  compelled  to  leave 
the  island.  But  during  that  period  of  fifteen  j'ears  of 
steady  labor,  the  native  language  was  reduced  to  a 
written  form,  the  whole  Bible  was  translated  into  the 
Malagasy  tongue,  a  school  system  was  established  in 
the  central  province  of  Imerina,  many  thousands  of 
children  were  instructed,  and  two  small  churches  were 
formed.  About  two  hundred  Malagasy  were  believed 
to  have  become  sincere  Christians,  while  several  thou- 
sands of  young  people  had  received  instruction  in  the 
elementary  facts  and  truths  of  Christianity.  That  w^as 
the  period  of  planting  in  Madagascar. 

The  second  period  in  the  history  of 
Persecution* 

Malagasy  Christianity  was  that  of  per- 
secution which  continued  for  twenty-six  years  (1835- 
61 ) .  During  this  time  persistent  efforts  were  made  to 
root  out  the  hated  foreign  religion.     But  the  number 


THE  LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  AFRICA  151 

of  the  "praying  people"  steadily  increased,  and  al- 
though about  two  hundred  of  them  were  put  to  death 
in  various  ways,  the  Christians  multiplied  ten- 
fold during  that  terrible  time  of  trial. 

The  truly  Christian  death  of  these  martyrs  is  de- 
scribed in  a  native  account,  "Then  they  prayed,  'O 
Lord,  receive  our  spirits,  for  Thy  love  to  us  hath 
caused  this  to  come  to  us;  and  lay  not  this  sin  to  their 
charge.'  Thus  prayed  they  as  long  as  they  had  any 
life  and  then  they  died — softly,  gently;  and  there  was 
at  the  time  a  rainbow  in  the  heavens,  which  seemed  to 
touch  the  place  of  the  burning." 

In    1862   mission   work   was    re-estab- 
lished, and  then  began  the  third  period 
in   the  religious  history  of  the  country,   emphatically 
that  of  progress.     From  that  date  until  the  present 
time  Christianity  has  steadily  grown  in  influence. 

A  great  outward  impetus  was  given  to  the  spread  of 
Christianity  in  the  early  part  of  1869  by  the  baptism 
of  the  queen,  Ranavalona  II,  and  her  Prime  Minister, 
and  the  subsequent  destruction  of  the  idols  of  the 
central  provinces,  and  still  more  by  the  personal  in- 
fluence of  the  sovereign  in  favor  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion.* 

Among    the    societies    which    entered 

v..    °  ^  Madagascar    at    this    period    was    the 

Mission.  ^  ^ 

Norwegian   Missionary   Society   which 
settled  in  the  province  of  Betsileo  in  1867.     With  ad- 


*The  material  for  this  account  was  gathered  from  the 
Missionary  Review  of  the  World — Article  by  James  Sibree 
—June   1895. 


152  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

mirable  administration  at  home,  and  in  spite  of  serious 
difficulty  with  an  opposition  mission  established  by  the 
Jesuits,  they  have  accomplished  a  task  which  is  uni- 
versally praised  by  missionary  historians.  They  have 
at  work,  besides  many  Norwegian  and  some  American 
missionaries,  ninety-six  native  pastors  and  over  nme 
hundred  catechists.  There  are  two  medical  missions 
and  a  leper  asylum,  schools  and  printing  offices.  It  is 
reckoned  that  among  the  one  hundred  and  thirty 
thousand  Christians  in  the  Island,  eighty-four  thousand 
are  Lutherans, 

Among  the  great  names  of  the  mission  are  those  of 
Dahle,  who  established  a  Seminary  for  native  workers, 
and  Doctor  Borchgrevink,  a  medical  missionary. 

American  Societies. 

The  Norwegians  in  America,  always  closely  con- 
nected with  the  Church  of  the  Fatherland,  sent  their 
missionary  contributions  at  first  thrvjugh  the  father- 
land societies,  the  Norwegian  Missionary  Society  and 
the  Norwegian  Church  (Schreuder's)  Mission.  To 
Schreuder's  Mission  the  Norwegian  Synod  (American) 
still  contributes,  having  sent  in   191 5   about  $10,000. 

In  the  work  in  Madagascar  American  Norwegians 
have  a  large  and  important  part.  In  1892  the  Nor- 
wegian Missionary  Society  assigned  to  the  United  Nor- 
ivegian  Lutheran  Church  (American)  the  southern 
part  of  the  island.  In  1897  this  field  was  divided 
once    more,    the    Norwegian    Lutheran    Free    Church 


FIRST    GRADUATING    CLASS    FROM    KINDERGARTEN    AT    OGI 
JAPAN. 


GROUP    OF    THEOLOGICAL    STUDENTS,    KUMAMOTO. 


THE  LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  AFRICA  153 

(American)  taking  the  western  section.  Together 
these  two  societies  have  a  territory  covering  about 
thirty  thousand  square  miles,  with  a  population  of 
almost  four  hundred  thousand.  The  United  Church 
contributed  in  191 5,  $42,000  for  its  work  and  the 
Norwegian  Free  Church  almost  $17,000.  Together 
they  have  a  Christian  community  of  about  twenty-six 
hundred. 

To  the  work  of  the  Leipsic  Society  in  East  Africa 
the  American  Lutheran  Synod  of  Iowa  contributes 
and  to  the  work  of  the  Hermannsburg  society,  the  Joinf 
Synod  of  Ohio. 

The  Synod  of  South  Carolina,  now  a  part  of  the 
United  Synod  in  the  South  may  be  said  to  have  been 
the  first  Lutheran  body  in  America  to  send  a  missionary 
to  Africa.  This  was  Boston  Drayton,  a  colored  mem- 
ber of  the  English  Lutheran  Church  of  Charleston, 
who  sailed  in  1845.  Of  him  or  of  his  work,  little  more 
is  known. 

The    Republic   of    Liberia    was   estab- 

An  African  tablished  in  1 82 1   "to  be  reserved  for- 

Republic 

ever   for   the   settlement   of   American 

freed  slaves."  The  little  republic  contains  about  fifty 
thousand  of  the  descendants  of  these  early  settlers  and 
about  two  million  aboriginees,  w^ho  are  divided  into 
eight  tribes.  Among  them  fetish  worship,  superstition, 
polygamy,  tendency  to  constant  strife,  and  other  char- 
acteristic African  faults  abound.  In  this  republic  the 
mission  of  The  General  Synod  was  founded  by  the  Rev. 
Morris  Oificer  in  i860.     Mr.  Officer  had  served  for 


154  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

a  year  and  a  half  as  a  missionary  of  the  American 
Board,  but  his  heart  longed  for  a  mission  of  his  own 
Church,  and  his  diary  shows  his  deep  satisfaction  when 
he  was  authorized  to  begin.  He  describes  the  making 
of  roads,  the  planting  of  banana  and  coffee  trees,  sweet 
potatoes  and  flowers.  He  tells  of  the  first  children  in 
the  school,  forty  boys  and  girls  captured  from  a  slave 
ship.  When  he  decided  upon  a  site  for  the  mission  he 
knelt  down  among  his  native  helpers  and  prayed  for 
God's  blessing  upon  the  new  endeavor. 

In  a  year  and  a  half  Mr.  Officer  was  compelled  to 
return  on  account  of  ill  health.  In  the  meantime  rein- 
forcements had  arrived  and  the  sad  and  stirring  his- 
tory of  this  little  mission  had  begun,  a  his- 
tory which  might  be  celebrated,  in  the  words  of  a  writer 
for  the  Missionary  Review,  in'  some  spirited  poem  like 
"The  Charge  of  the  Light  Brigade  at  Balaklava."  Of 
eighteen  missionaries  sent  out  during  the  first  thirty-six 
years,  six  died  within  two  years  after  reaching  the 
field,  while  eight  returned  within  three  years  with 
greatly  shattered  health. 

In  contrast  to  this  shadow  we  have  the 

^"  ^^^^^  history  of  Doctor  David  A.  Day,  who 

Missionary.  -^  •" 

lived  and  labored  for  twenty-three 
years  in  this  dangerous  country.  A  man  of  strong  body 
and  fine  mind.  Doctor  Day  was  an  ideal  missionary. 
Possessing  deep  faith  with  which  to  meet  serious  prob- 
lems, and  a  keen  sense  of  humor  with  which  to  meet 
smaller  difficulties,  he  labored  until  he  was  worn  out. 
Returning  to  America  when  he  dared  linger  no  longer, 


THE  LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  AFRICA  155 

he  died  almost  in  sight  of  the  home  land,  his  wife, 
whose  devotion  was  no  less  than  his,  having  died 
two  3'ears  before.  Mrs.  Day  was  made  of  the  same 
heroic  stuff  as  her  husband.  As  the  end  of  her  life 
approached  she  urged  her  husband  to  remain  in  Africa 
where  he  was  so  much  needed  rather  than  join  her, 
great  as  was  her  desire  to  see  him.  How  many  noble 
missionary  wives  have  made  similar  sacrifice ! 

The  great  regard  in  which  Doctor  Day  was  held,  as 
well  as  the  impressionable  and  affectionate  nature  of 
the  people  among  whom  he  worked,  is  shown  in  an 
incident  recorded  in  his  biography.  When  the  news 
came  from  America  that  Mrs.  Day  was  dead,  the  little 
children  of  the  mission  gathered  a  bunch  of  white 
lilies  which  they  put  into  the  hands  of  one  of  their 
number  who  carried  them  into  the  room,  where, 
stunned  and  grief-stricken.  Doctor  Day  bent  under  the 
first  shock  of  his  bereavement.  Silently  laying  the 
flowers  before  him,  the  little  girl  kissed  his  feet  and  as 
silently  withdrew.  Surely  missionary  work  has  its 
earthly  as  well  as  its  heavenly  reward. 

To-day  the  Muhlenberg  mission  has  fifteen  men  and 
women  at  work.  It  counts  its  native  Christians  at 
three  hundred.  A  valuable  and  interesting  expansion 
of  the  work  is  the  employing  of  Doctor  Westerman,  a 
distinguished  German  philologist,  to  prepare  grammars 
and  dictionaries  of  the  native  languages,  which,  to  pre- 
pare for  greater  growth,  the  missionaries  must  learn. 
Like  all  of  Africa  this  mission  begs  for  more  workers, 
more  money,  more  interest,  more  prayers. 


156  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

Here  closes  the  record  of  our  work  in  Africa.  It  has 
given  many  examples  of  faith  and  courage  to  mission- 
ary history,  it  has  added  many  names,  John  Ludwig 
Krapf,  Rosina  Krapf,  Schreuder,  Day,  to  the  roster  of 
Africa's  apostles.  But  in  the  words  of  Frederic  Perry 
Noble,  Africa's  chief  missionary  historian,  "Lutheran- 
ism  is  yet  in  its  attitude  toward  missions  a  sleeping 
giant."  Since  Mr.  Noble  gave  expression  to  this 
opinion,  Lutheranism  has  made  a  beginning  in  African 
mission  work.  Still,  however,  she  is  not  yet  aroused. 
As  in  India,  so  in  Africa,  German  missions  and  mis- 
sionaries have  suffered  cruelly  in  the  present  war. 
May  the  true  spirit  of  Christ  so  influence  His  Church 
henceforth  that  missionary  and  not  military  warfare 
may  fill  the  pages  of  history. 


CHAPTER  V. 

The  Lutheran  Church  in  China,  Japan  and 
Elsewhere 
China. 

The  Land 
The  People 
Religion 
Character 
History 

Early   Missions. 

Karl   Frederick   Giitzlaff 

Societies 

Germafi 
Basel 
Rhenish 
Berlin 

Scandinavian 
Danish 

Norwegian  Missionary  Society 
Norwegian   Lutheran   China   Mission 
Swedish   Mission   in   China 
Swedish  Lutheran   Mission   in   Mongolia 
Lutheran    Gospel    Association    of    Finland 

American 

United    Norwegian    Lutheran    Church 
Range's    Norwegian    Lutheran    Synod 
Norwegian   Synod 
Norwegian   Free   Church 
Norwegian    Brethren 

Japan. 

The  Land   and   the  People 
Societies 
American 

Lutheran    Gospel    Association    of    Finland 
United    Synod    in   the    South 
General  Council 
Danish   American 


East  Indies 
Societies 

Rhenish   in   Sumatra,   Borneo,   Nias,   etc. 
Neukirchen   in   Java 
Dutch  in  Batoe  Islands 

Australia    Neuendettelsau 

New    Guinea    Neuendettelsau 

Rhenish 

The  Near  East   

The  Jews    


Chapter  V. 

THE  LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  CHINA,  JAPAN  AND 
ELSEWHERE 

China. 


The   Land. 


China  is  the  most  ancient  of  the  great 
empires  of  the  world.  It  comprises 
more  than  four  million  square  miles  and  is  divided  into 
eighteen  provinces.  Among  the  various  annexed  coun- 
tries are  Tartary,  Mongolia  and  Manchuria.  There 
is  a  wide  varietj^  of  scenery  and  climate,  there  are 
mountains  of  great  elevation  and  there  is  an  enormous 
and  fertile  river  plain,  which  lies  on  the  lower  courses 
of  the  Huang  Ho  and  Yang-tse-Kiang  Rivers  and 
which  supports  a  larger  population  than  any  other 
region  of  the  globe  of  equal  size. 

A  Danish  Lutheran  missionary  describes  thus  the 
features  of  the   Chinese  landscape : 

"The  soil  of  the  valley  is  clothed  with  light  green 
or  yellow  rice-fields,  through  which  the  water  course 
winds  like  a  glittering  silver  ribbon ;  along  the  stream, 
or  on  either  side  of  the  valley,  wave  the  delicate  leafy 
crowns  of  the  bamboo  reeds,  bowing  to  the  slightest 
breeze.  If  we  look  up  to  the  mountain-sides  on  either 
hand,  these  are  covered  below  with  mulberry  groves, 
cotton   plantations,   and   trim   tea-grounds,   which   are 


160  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

often  disposed  in  artificial  terraces,  which  sometimes 
also  bear  corn.  Higher  up,  as  far  as  the  mountain 
will  consent  to  be  'clothed',  grow  woods,  among  whose 
foliage  the  light  leaves  of  the  camphor-tree,  the  red- 
dish leaves  of  the  tallow-tree,  and  the  dark  green  leaves 
of  the  arbor  vltae  occupy  a  conspicuous  place ;  but 
there  are  also  found  cedars  and  cypresses.  Where  the 
wood  sinks  into  shrubbery,  it  frequently  consist?  of 
azaleas  and  similar  plants,  which  we  grow  in  green- 
houses or  in  windows  fronting  the  south,  and  which 
in  the  flowering  time  aflEord  a  spectacle  of  dazzling 
beauty.  There  are  also  found  groves  of  roses  or  jes- 
samines. On  the  whole,  there  are  many  very  beauti- 
ful landscapes  in  China.  Nor  are  there  wanting  wild 
mountain  regions  of  an  Alpine  character.  Deserts 
there  are  none;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are 
dreary  and  melancholy  marshes,  and  the  coasts  are  of- 
ten flat  and  tiresome. 

"While  plant  life  is  thus  richly  developed  in  China, 
the  opposite  is  true  of  animal  life.  There  is  certainly 
no  region  on  earth  where  it  plays  so  slight  a  part 
and  is  so  scantily  represented  as  here.  The  greedy 
and  reckless  children  of  men  have  consumed  or  ex- 
pelled the  beasts  of  the  field  and  the  fowls  of  the  air." 

The  people,  numbering  about  four  hun- 
The  People.  ,      ,         .,,.  ,.  u-  n        •        i 

dred     million,     live    chierly    in     large 

towns  and  in  dense  settlements  along  the  rivers. 
Millions  live  on  the  rivers  in  houseboats.  The  Chi- 
nese are  industrious  and  thrifty  and  at  the  same  time 
ignorant  and  exceedingly  unprogressive.     Only  a  small 


LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  BORNEO. 
LUTHERAN  CHURCH  IN  JAVA. 


CHINA,    JAPAN    AND    ISLANDS  161 

class  is  educated,  and  education,  like  all  else  that  is 
Chinese,  has  hitherto  looked  to  the  past  for  its  sub- 
ject matter.  It  consists  of  the  fixing  in  mind  of  the 
ancient  classical  writings  and  the  acquiring  of  the  an- 
cient, classical  style.  To  the  foreigner  the  language 
offers  obstacles  which  are  almost  insurmountable. 
There  are  only  four  hundred  different  words,  but 
these  are  so  modified  by  inflections  and  by  the  tone  of 
the  voice  that  their  variations  are  legion.  One  of  the 
early  missionaries  said  that  in  order  to  acquire  the 
Chinese  language  one  must  have  a  "body  of  bras?, 
lungs  of  steel,  a  head  of  oak,  the  eyes  of  eagles,  the 
heart  of  an  apostle,  the  memory  of  an  angel  and  the 
life  of  Methuselah".  The  written  language  is  even 
more  difficult  to  learn  than  the  spoken  language  and 
both  present  the  greatest  difficulty  to  the  missionary 
in  that  they  contain  no  such  words  as  sin,  holiness, 
regeneration,  spirit,  God,  which  are  so  essential  a  part 
of   the    Christian   vocabulary. 

Three  religions  are  firmly  established, 
Confucianism,  Taoism  and  Buddhism. 
These  are  not  clearly  differentiated,  by  any  means, 
but  the  individual  frequently  selects  from  each  the  el- 
ements which  please  him.  Doctor  Warneck  describes 
this  strange  eclectic  religion  as  follows:  "All  of  them 
reverence  Confucius,  regulate  their  life — to  a  certain 
extent — according  to  his  precepts,  and  are  devoted  to 
ancestor  worship ;  all  have  recourse,  especially  in  sick- 
ness and  need,  to  the  magic  arts  and  superstitious  hocus 
pocus  of  the  Taoists  and  almost  all  commend  their  souls 


162  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

at  death  to  the  Buddhist  priests,  have  masses  read  for 
the  soul  and  make  use  of  the  Buddhist  burial  cere- 
monial. The  polite  man  says  to  the  man  of  different 
belief,  and  the  enlightened  man  who  no  longer  be- 
lieves anything  repeats  it:  'The  three  doctrines  come 
to  the  same  thing  in  the  end'." 

There  are  in  China  also  about  thirty  million  Mo- 
hammedans. 

The  Chinese  character  is  as  diiHicult  to 
impress  as  the  Chinese  language  is  hard 
to  learn.  Since  the  Chinese  vi^orships  that  which  is 
old,  the  stranger  and  foreigner  seems  to  him  indeed 
a  "devil";  since  he  is  self-righteous,  he  does  not  con- 
sider himself  an  object  for  missionary  efifort.  It  was 
at  first  laughable  to  him  that  missionaries  should  come 
to  his  land  with  so  foolish  a  purpose.  In  scores  of 
cases  he  punished  the  efifrontery  of  their  undertaking 
with  death. 

Nevertheless  upon  his  hardened  and  indifferent 
heart  there  has  been  wrought  a  wonderful  work.  To 
Christian  nations  he  has  learned  to  look  not  only  for 
a  better  educational  system  but  with  increasing  eager- 
ness for  a  better  religion.  Recently  an  edict  was  passed 
declaring  Confucianism  to  be  still  the  State  religion, 
but  at  the  same  time  thousands  were  thronging  to 
hear  the  speakers  in  a  nation-wide  Christian  campaign. 

Until    the    middle    of    the   Nineteenth 
China  no  ... 

Longer  a  Century  China  was  closed  to  foreign- 

Closed  Land.  pj.g  i^  J  3^2,  at  the  end  of  the  infa- 
mous Opium  War  by  which  England  forced  the  opium 


CHINA,    JAPAN    AND    ISLANDS  163 

trade  upon  unwilling  China,  five  ports  were  opened, 
Shangai,  Ningpo,  Foochow,  Amoy  and  Canton,  and 
the  Island  of  Hongkong  was  ceded  to  England.  In 
these  ports  missionaries  went  at  once  to  work.  In 
1850  the  Taiping  Rebellion  seemed  to  promise  for 
a  while  not  only  sweeping  reforms  but  the  possible 
acceptance  of  the  religion  of  the  foreigners,  but  it 
degenerated  into  a  barbarous  and  cruel  rebellion  which 
was  eventually  subdued  by  "Chinese"  Gordon  at  the 
head  of  the  Imperial  troops. 

In  1856  there  was  another  Opium  War  in  which 
France  joined.  At  its  close  nine  more  ports  were 
opened.  In  i860  there  was  a  third  war  and  finally 
twenty-four  ports  were  opened.  Now  missionaries 
were  allowed  free  course  through  the  Empire,  but 
they  had  become  more  than  ever  in  the  eyes  of  the  peo- 
ple "foreign  devils". 

The  Boxer  ^^   IQOO,   by  which  time   it  was  esti- 

Uprising.  mated  that  in  spite  of  fearful  opposi- 

tion there  were  two  hundred  and  fifteen  thousand 
Christians,  came  the  Boxer  uprising.  Disapproving 
of  the  progressive  policies  of  the  young  Emperor 
alarmed  by  the  threatening  advance  of  Germany, 
Russia,  England  and  France,  the  Chinese  determined 
upon  a  wholesale  slaughter,  not  only  of  mis- 
sionaries and  other  foreigners,  but  of  native  Chris- 
tians as  well.  With  Indescrlble  barbarity  thousands 
were  slain,  among  them  one  hundred  and  thirty-four 
missionaries,  fifty-two  children  of  missionaries  and 
sixteen  thousand  native  Christians. 


164  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

The  effect  upon  Christian  missions  was  extraor- 
dinary. As  though  the  rain  of  blood  and  fire  had 
been  a  refreshing  shower,  the  harvest  sprang  up.  Tru- 
ly the  blood  of  martyrs  was  once  more  the  seed  of 
the  Church.  Within  ten  years  after  the  uprising  the 
number  of  Christians  had  more  than  doubled. 

The    first    Christian    mission    to    the 

The  First  Chinese  was  that  of  the  heroic  Nesto- 

Missionanes. 

rians  in  the  Seventh  Century  of*  which 

little  but  a  traditional  account  remains.  Roman 
Catholic  missions  record  the  names  of  many  heroes, 
but  on  account  of  the  hardness  of  the  heart  of  the 
people  and  also  on  account  of  the  lack  of  wisdom  of  the 
missionaries,  no  permanent  missions  were  established. 

Before  the  treaty  ports  were  opened  in  1842, 
the  English  missionary  Morrison  visited  the  country 
secretly  and  began  Protestant  missions  by  translating 
the  whole  Bible  into  Chinese.  Equal  in  devotion  and 
diligence  and  with  a  peculiar  interest  for  us  was  another 
missionary,  Karl  Frederick  Giltzlajf,  a  Lutheran  whose 
ardent  appeal  for  China  helped  to  quicken  the  mis- 
sionary spirit  in  the  American  Lutheran  Church  and 
also  inspired  David  Livinstone  to  give  his  life  to  mis- 
sions. 

Giitzlaff  was  born  of  humble  folk  in 

A  Letter  to  Pyritz  in  Pomerania  in   1 803.     When 

the  King.  ^  ^ 

he  was  twelve  years  old  he  was  appren- 
ticed to  a  saddler,  but  he  had  other  intentions  for  his 
life,  and  wrote  in  poetical  form  his  desire  to  become 
a  famous  man.    This  poem  the  lad  addressed  to  no  less 


CHINA,    JAPAN    AND    ISLANDS  165 

a  person  than  the  King  of  Prussia,  through  whom  he 
was  sent  first  to  Halle  to  school  and  afterwards  to 
the  institute  of  Jaenicke  at  Berlin.  In  1826  he  went 
as  a  missionary  of  the  Netherlands  Society  to  Java. 
After  several  years  of  labor,  he  determined  to  pene- 
trate into  closed  and  inhospitable  China.  When  the 
Netherlands  Society  declined  to  give  him  permission, 
he  left  their  service  in  1831  and  became  an  interpreter 
on  a  coast  vessel. 

Appeals  for  Meanwhile  during  his  service  in  Java, 
Help.  Giitzlaff  had  learned  the  Chinese  lan- 

guage, the  most  difficult  of  the  many  tongues  which 
his  extraordinary  gift  for  language  enabled  liim  to 
master.  Now  in  the  many  journeys  which  he  made 
up  and  down  the  coast,  he  began  to  preach  and  to 
distribute  thousands  of  tracts  of  his  own  translating. 
He  wrote  to  England  and  America  earnest  appeals 
that  workers  be  sent  to  share  in  his  labors.  Pres- 
ently he  was  made  an  interpreter  in  the  English  con- 
sular service,  in  which  position  he  had  wide  oppor- 
tunity for  Christian  w^ork.  At  the  end  of  the  Opium 
War  he  gave  valuable  service  by  his  knowledge  of  the 
country  and  the  people.  Tradition  records  that  at 
this  time  among  China's  vast  population  there  were 
six  Christians. 

Though  five  ports  had  been  opened  by  the  treaty 
of  Nanking,  foreigners  were  not  allowed  t'O  go  far 
beyond  them.  To  meet  this  difficulty,  GiitzlailE  began 
the  training  of  bands  of  native  workers  who  should 
carry  the  Gospel  to  the  most  distant  of  the  eighteen 


166  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

provinces.  He  continued  to  preach  and  to  call  upon 
the  home  lands  for  aLd.  In  1849  he  visited  Europe. 
Travelling  rapidly,  he  flew  "like  an  angel"  through 
most  of  the  European  countries,  preaching,  plead- 
ing and  endeavoring  to  form  societies,  which  should 
divide  vast  China  into  missionary  provinces.  Among 
the  few  who  heard  and  answered  his  plea  was,  as  we 
have  seen,  David  Livingstone. 

.    _,      -  In   1 8=^0  Giitzlaff  returned  to  China. 

A   Cruel  -'     . 

Disappoint-  The  bands  of  native  w^orkers  which  he 

"^^"*"  had  trained  with  such  enthusiasm  had 

not  lived  up  to  his  high  hopes  but  had  basely  be- 
trayed him.  Before  he  could  do  much  toward  re- 
pairing the  damage  which  they  had  wrought,  he  died 
at  the  age  of  forty-eight.  He  was  buried  in  Hong 
Kong  and  over  his  body  was  erected  a  mighty  stone 
bearing  in  English  the  inscription,  "An  Apostle",  and 
in  German,  "The  Apostle  to  the  Chinese". 
Author  and  The  literary  labors  of   Giitzlaff    were 

Translator.  enormous,  especially  when  we  consider 

that  he  was  constantly  occupied  with  other  affair?  as 
missionary  and  interpreter.  He  tran^ated  the  Bible 
into  Siamese ;  he  aided  the  Englishman  Robert  Mor- 
rison in  his  translation  of  the  Bible  into  Chinese ; 
he  published  a  monthly  magazine  in  Chinese  and  wrote 
in  Chinese  various  books  on  useful  subjects.  Among 
his  English  and  German  works  were  a  "Journal  of 
Three  Voyages  along  the  Coast  of  China  in  1831, 
1832  and  1833,"  "A  Sketch  of  Chinese  History,  An- 
cient and  Modern",  "China  Opened"  and  "The  Life 
of  Taow-Kwang." 


CHINA,    JAPAN    AND    ISLANDS  167 

As  remarkable  as  Giitzlaff's  talent  and  industry  was 
his  enthusiasm.  Where  his  work  did  not  succeed, 
failure  was  brought  about  not  by  any  lack  in  himself 
but  in  those  of  whom  he  expected  larger  things  than 
they  could  accomplish. 

A  missionary  historian  describes  a  memorial  to  Giitz- 

laff,  which  seems  singularly  appropriate  to  his  life  of 

devotion. 

"We  were  passing  through  the  Straits 
A  Memorial.  .  „  •  i    •   i  i 

or  J:'ormosa  at  midnight  when  we  saw 

suddenly  before  us  on  China's  wild  coast  a  towering 

lighthouse.    At  the  same  moment  a  loud  cry  came  over 

the  water,  'Giitzlaff!'    We  asked  who  was  summoned 

and   they   answered    that    the   lighthouse   was   named 

for  the  missionary  Giitzlaff,  and  thus  by  the  use  of 

his   name   instead   of   the   accustomed    'Beware',    was 

his  memory  recalled." 

German  Societies. 

It  is  proper  to  include  here  as  elsewhere  the  his- 
tories of  those  German  societies,  which,  though  they 
are  not  wholly  Lutheran,  yet  employ  and  are  sup- 
ported by  many  Lutherans.  The  three  Lutheran  or 
partly  Lutheran  organizations  Avhich  have  missions  in 
China  are  the  Basel,  the  Berlin  and  the  Rhenish  so- 
cieties. 

In  response  to  the  appeal  of  Gutzlaff,  the  Basel 
Society  sent  to  China  in  1847  two  missionaries, L^f/f- 
ler  and  Hamberg.  Greeted  with  joy  by  GiitzlafE, 
they  set  about  learning  the  Chinese  language  and  be- 


168  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

gan  at  once  to  preach  with  the  aid  of  interpreters. 
Their  work  was  begun  in  the  southwestern  part  of 
Canton,  the  most  southern  of  China's  eighteen  pro- 
vinces. So  well  did  they  labor  that  by  1855  they  had 
one  hundred  and  seventy-five  Christians.  Gradually 
a  thoroughly  organized  mission  was  established  with 
the  characteristic  Basel  features  of  industrial  work 
and  careful  education.  In  1897  the  mission  cele- 
brated its  fiftieth  anniversary,  together  with  the  fif- 
tieth anniversary  of  the  work  of  Missionary  Lechler, 
the  latter  a  rare  and  notable  occasion  in  the  history 
of  missions. 

To-day  the  Basel  Society  works  in  two 

Fifty  Years  districts,    one    in    the    highlands,    the 

of   Service.  _ 

Other  in  the  lowlands  of  Canton.     It 

has  a  staff  of  forty-seven  missionaries,  who  are  di- 
vided among  seventeen  main  stations,  and  one  hun- 
dred and  ninety-seven  out-stations. 

In  addition  to  its  foreign  forces  it  has  at  work 
two  hundred  and  twenty  natives.  Its  communicant 
members  are  seven  thousand,  the  total  number  of  its 
Christians  eleven  thousand. 

With  the  Basel  missionaries  there  went  to  China 
in  1847  two  missionaries  from  the  Rhenish  Society, 
Genahr  and  Kuster.  They  established  themselves 
in  the  province  of  Canton  and  nearer  Hong  Kong 
than  Lechler  and  Hamberg.  The  mission  has  had 
during  the  seventj'-five  years  of  its  existence  many  dif- 
ficulties, but,  though  it  has  never  grown  to  be  very 
large,  it  has  accomplished  a  fine  work. 


CHINA,    JAPAN    AND    ISLANDS  169 

A  Missionary  O"^  ^^  ^'^^  ^^^^  o^  ^^^  misfortunes  was 
Sermon.  the  death  of  Missionary  Genahr,  who 

contracted  cholera  from  a  Christian  who  had  been 
cast  out  by  his  employers.  The  earnest  spirit  of  this 
pious  man  may  be  read  in  a  little  missionary  sermon 
from  his  pen  concerning  those  easy-going  Christians 
who  think  that  it  lies  entirely  within  their  own  good 
pleasure  whether  they  will  do  anything  for  woik 
abroad.  "In  the  Book  of  Judges,  fifth  chapter,  twen- 
ty-third verse,  we  find :  'Curse  5'e  Meroz,  said  the 
angel  of  the  Lord,  curse  ye  bitterly  the  inhabitants 
thereof ;  because  they  came  not  to  the  help  of  the  Lord, 
to  the  help  of  the  Lord  against  the  mighty.'  In  an 
old  book  we  find  the  following  questions  and  answers 
upon  this  verse : 

"'Who  was  commanded  to  curse  Meroz?'  An- 
swer:  'The  angel  of  the  Lord.' 

'"What  had  Meroz  done?'     'Nothing.' 

"  'How?  why,  then  is  Meroz  cursed?'  'Because  she 
has  done  nothing.' 

"'What  should  Meroz  have  done?'  'Come  to  the 
help  of  the  Lord.' 

"  'Could  not  the  Lord,  then,  have  succeeded  with- 
out Meroz?'  'The  Lord  did  succeed  without  Meroz.' 

"  'Then  has  the  Lord  met  with  a  loss  thereby?' 
'No,  but  Meroz  has.' 

"'Is  Meroz,  then,  to  be  cursed  therefor?'  'Yes, 
and  that  bitterly.' 

"  'Is  it  right  that  a  man  should  be  cursed  for  hav- 


170  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

ing  done  nothing?'  'Yes,  when  he  should  have  done 
something.' 

"'Who  says  that?'  'The  angel  of  the  Lord;  and 
the  Lord  Himself  saj^s  (Luke  12:47)  ;  "He  tha*:  knew 
his  Lord's  will  and  did  it  not,  shall  be  beaten  with 
many  stripes." 

Danger  and  ^^    ^^7^    ^^'^'°    °^    ^^^    stations    of    the 

Loss.  Rhenish    Society  were   destroyed   by  a 

fanatic  mob  w^ho  accused  the  missionaries  of  desiring 
to  poison  all  those  who  were  not  Christians.  Again 
in  1898,  stations  were  destroyed  by  robbers  and  rebels. 
Fortunately  the  Boxer  uprising  in  1900  left 
the  property  of  this  mission  almost  untouched  and  the 
missionaries  returning  after  it  was  safe,  were  able  to 
begin  almost  where  they  had  left  off. 

At  Tungkum  the  society  has  a  large  hospital,  whose 
superintendent  had  in  1899  twenty  thousand  consul- 
tations. The  latest  reports  gave  two  thousand  five 
hundred  church  members  divided  among  seven  sta- 
tions, at  which  there  are  twenty-three  missionaries. 
In  1873  the  Rhenish  Society  took  over  what  remained 
of  Giitzlaff's  mission. 

A  Missionary  Among  the  missionaries  of  the  Rhen- 
Scholar.  ish   Society  was  Doctor  Ernest  Faber, 

a  scholar  of  immense  learning,  who,  after  being  in 
the  service  of  the  Society  for  eight  years  joined  the 
General  Protestant  Missionary  Society.  He  is  es- 
pecially famous  for  his  translations  of  the  Chinese 
classics  and  it  was  said  of  him  that  he  spoke  a  better 
Chinese  than  the  natives  themselves. 


CHINA,    JAPAN    AND    ISLANDS  171 

Tiie  Berlin  Society  has  two  separate 
A  Chinese  ^^jjg  ^f  ^^b^j.   ^^   Q^^^^^      -phe  first  IS 

Samt  Paul. 

in   the   Province  of   Canton,   near  the 

missions  of  the  Basel  and  Rhenish  societies.  The  mis- 
sion has  its  record  of  loss  and  persecution  during  the 
native  uprisings  and  also  its  stories  of  victory.  In  its 
early  history  the  station  at  Thamschui  was  the  scene 
of  a  cruel  attack.  The  mob  was  led  by  a  young  man 
blovving  a  trumpet  and  calling  to  his  followers  to 
extenninate  the  foreign  devils,  who  meanwhile  fled 
from  house  roof  to  house  roof  and  finally  escaped. 
Subsequently  this  young  man  was  converted  and  be- 
came a  powerful  evangelist  who  like  Saint  Paul  en- 
deavored witii  all  his  power  to  build  up  that  which  he 
had   hitherto   torn   down. 

In  Time  of  The  second  station  of  the  Berlin   So- 

Famine.  ciety  is  in  the  Province  of  Shantung. 

In  consequence  of  the  assistance  given  during  the 
famine  in  1889,  when  over  $200,000  was  dis- 
tributed and  over  one  hundred  thousand  lives 
saved,  many  became  interested  in  Christianity  as  the 
religion  which  inspires  deeds  of  kindness  and  mercy; 
and  during  1890  it  is  said  that  over  a  thousand 
persons  were  baptized  whose  attention  was  drawn 
to  the  religion  of  Christ  by  the  fact  that  the  mission- 
aries were  so  prominent  in  securing  this  aid  and  dis- 
tributing it.  In  this  work  and  its  reward  the  Ber- 
lin Society  had  a  part. 

The  following  letter  from  a  missionary  of  the 
Berlin  Society  describes  vividly  a  Chinese  city  and 
gives  an  account  of  the  work  of  the  Christian  evangelist. 


172  THE  STORY  OP  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

A  Chinese  "We    hired    a    bearer    and    proceeded 

City.  through   the  endless  confusion   of  the 

narrow,  dirty  streets  of  Canton,  through  the  evil  smells 
of  a  many-thousand-year-old  decaying  culture,  on  past 
all  the  innumerable  shops  and  idol  temples,  halls  of 
justice  and  idol  altars,  past  all  the  numberless  human 
forms,  poor  and  rich,  well  and  sick,  vested  with  silk 
or  covered  with  rags,  painted  with  vermilion  or  con- 
sumed with  leprosy,  which  flood  the  lanes  of  the  giant 
city  of  Southern  China,  out  through  the  great  iron 
Northern  gate,  through  several  streets  of  the  suburbs, 
past  scattered  huts — and  now  the  great  alluvial  plain 
of  the  Northstream  delta  stretches  before  our  eyes. 
A  pure  air  breathes  over  the  land  and  encompasses 
us  after  we  have  escaped  the  exhalations  which  rest, 
suffocating  and  heavy,  upon  the  city  of  a  million 
souls, 

jn  the  "^^  ^^^  schools  and  on  the  crossways, 

Mountains.  where  the  passing  wayfarers  were  rest- 

ing in  the  tea-huts,  we  sought  opportunities  to  preach 
the  Word  of  God.  Often  we  found  them,  often  we 
waited  in  vain.  Many  a  guest  listened  an  instant,  then 
silently  took  up  his  bundle  and  went  on  his  way.  There 
was  nothing  in  the  proclamation  of  the  Word  that  en- 
gaged the  man's  interest.  Companies  of  heathen  hungry 
for  salvation,  and  hanging  upon  the  lips  of  the  mission- 
ary, were  not  to  be  found  in  the  mountains;  such,  we 
may  well  say,  are  not  to  be  found  anywhere  in  China. 
The  Lord  alone  knows  where  a  seed-corn  of  eternity 
sinks  into  a  human  heart.    The  man  takes  it  with  him ; 


CHINA,   JAPAN    AND    ISLANDS  173 

often  it  sinks  out  of  reach  or  is  choked  by  the  thorns 
and  briers  of  heathenism,  yet  often,  after  the  lapse  of 
years,  it  shoots  up  again  into  the  light.  At  one  tea- 
hut,  which  was  covered  with  the  leaves  of  the  fern 
palm,  there  gathered  around  us  a  great  company  of 
women.  They  were  burdened  with  stones  out  of  the 
neighboring  quarry,  at  the  same  time  carrying  their 
infants  on  their  hips.  They  laid  off  their  loads  and 
listened,  and  some  asked  very  intelligent  questions, 
'Sir,  if  we  are  not  to  worship  idols,  how  shall  we 
pray  to  the  heavenly  Father?'  A  heathen,  sitting 
near,  disturbed  us  by  his  unseemly  witticisms.  The 
language  is  rich  in  such  equivocal  turns.  People  do 
not  understand  the  reference,  and  are  taken  in  by  the 
seeming  harmlessness  of  the  phrase.  The  helper  ex- 
plained to  me  the  more  usual  of  them.  They  open 
a  view  into  the  hideous  depths  of  heathenism." 

This  description  was  written  many  years  ago.  To- 
day the  missionary  historian  rejoices  to  record  that 
there  are  companies  of  Chinese  hungry  for  the  news  of 
salvation.  In  many  instances  the  largest  auditoriums 
in  great  cities  have  proved  too  small  for  the  throngs 
which  pressed  to  attend  evangelistic  meetings. 

The  Berlin  Society  has  a  staff  of  thirty-six  mission- 
aries in  fifteen  main  stations.  Its  baptized  Christians 
number  about  ten  thousand. 

The  contribution  of  German  Lutherans  to  mission 
work  in  China  is  not  to  be  reckoned  altogether  by  fig- 
ures. Here  as  elsewhere  the  Germans  have  thorough- 
ly studied  the  native  languages,  and  have  devoted  much 


174  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

time  to  the  writing  of  grammars  and  dictionaries  and 
the  making  of  translations  so  that  the  foundation  might 
be  well  laid.  Their  labors  have  been  a  benefit  to 
other  missionary  societies  as  well  as  to  their  own. 

Scandinavian  Societies. 

The  Danish  Lutherans  have  a  mission  in  Manchu- 
ria which  was  begun  in  1895.  Two  stations  are  in 
the  south  and  one  at  Harbin.  There  are  forty-two 
men  and  women  at  work  and  the  number  gf  baptized 
Christians  is  nearly  one  thousand. 

The  missionaries  appointed  at  the  opening  of  the 
work  in  China  visited  on  their  way  the  United  States 
and  roused  interest  in  many  churches  of  the  United 
Danish  Evangelical  Lutheran  Synod,  which  now  aids 
in  the  China  work  of  the  Fatherland  Society. 

The  Norwegian  Missionary  Society  has  six  stations 
in  the  Hunan  Province,  in  which  there  are  fifteen  hun- 
dred church  members  and  one  thousand  catechumens. 

The  Norwegian  Lutheran  China  Mission  works  in 
Northern  Hupeh  with  twenty-nine  missionaries  and 
has  won  about  eight  hundred  and  fifty  Christians. 

The  Swedish  Mission  in  China,  founded  in  1887, 
labors  in  connection  with  the  China  Inland  Mission, 
a  large  and  successful  inter-denominational  mission, 
which  has  more  than  twenty  thousand  communicants. 
To  this  work  other  Swedish   societies  contribute. 

The  founding  of  the  Swedish  Mission 

A  Pioneer.  •      r^i  •  j        ^     ^.u      •   a  i 

m   Lhma  was  due  to  the  mtluence  01 

a  visit  from  Lars  Skrefsrud,  one  of  the  founders  of 


CHINA,    JAPAN    AND    ISLANDS  175 

the  Home  Mission  to  the  Santals  in  India.  His 
burning  enthusiasm  for  the  cause  of  missions  influenced 
Erik  Folke  to  become  in  1887  a  pioneer  in  China.  He 
studied  the  Chinese  language  in  the  school  of  the 
China  Inland  Mission  and  then  arranged  for  the 
founding  of  an  independent  Swedish  Mission,  which 
should,  however,  work  in  connection  with  the  China 
Inland  Mission.  Mr.  Folke's  fearful  experiences  dur- 
ing the  Boxer  uprising  so  affected  his  health  that  it 
was  necessary  that  he  should  return  to  Sweden  where 
he  serves  as  president  of  the  Home  Committee. 

The  field  of  this  Swedish  Mission  is  composed  of 
the  parts  of  the  Provinces  of  Shensi,  Shansi  and  Honan, 
which  meet  at  the  turn  of  the  Yellow  River  from  south 
to  east.  It  numbers  almost  as  many  inhabitants  as 
Sweden.  Among  the  mission  institutions  are  opium 
refuges  where  those  afflicted  with  the  opium  habit 
may  go   for  treatment. 

The  Swedish  There  is  a  small  Swedish  Lutheran 
Martyrs.  Mission   in   Mongolia,   begun   in    1899 

with  three  missionaries,  its  station  being  at  Hallnng 
Osso,  eighty-five  miles  north  of  Kalgan.  This  mis- 
sion suffered  greatly  during  the  Boxer  uprising,  its 
three  missionaries  being  killed.  It  seemed  for  a  long 
time  that  labor  in  this  district  was  worse  than  useless, 
but  a  few  faithful  workers  have  persisted.  Now  the 
three  missionaries  who  are  on  the  field  believe  that 
the  harvest  will  shortly  be  gathered. 

The  Swedish  missions  have  laid  many  sacrifices 
upon  the  altar  of  the  cause  which  they  love.     The 


176  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

total  number  of  Swedes  murdered  in  the  Boxer  upris- 
ing was  about  forty,  one-third  of  the  whole  number  of 
the  westerners  who  were  killed.  A  number  of  these 
were  Lutherans.  If  the  blood  of  its  martyrs  is  the 
seed  of  the  Church,  there  opens  for  Sweden  a  great 
future  in  China. 

The  Lutheran  Gospel  Association  of  Finland  car- 
ries on  a  mission  in  Northern  Hupeh  with  sixteen 
missionaries  in  four  stations. 

American  Societies. 

A  Generous  Tht  Danish  Lutherans  support,  as  we 

People.  have  seen,    the  mission  of  their  father- 

land. 

Five  American  Norwegian  Lutheran  bodies  have 
missions  in  China,  to  which  they  contributed  in  191 5, 
about  $118,000. 

The  United  Noriuegian  Lutheran  Church  is  at 
work  in  the  south  central  portion  of  the  Province  of 
Honan,  where  it  took  over  in  1904  several  stations  of 
an  independent  society.  It  has  now  six  stations 
and  forty-nine  missionaries.  The  Christians  num- 
ber about  fifteen  hundred.  Among  the  stations  are 
Sinj^ing,  where  there  are  training  schools  for  native 
workers  and  Kioshan  where  the  mission  hospital  is 
situated. 

Hauge's  Norwegian  Lutheran  Synod  began  its  work 
in  China  in  1891.  The  main  station  is  Fan  Cheng  and 
the  territory  lies  partly  in  the  Honan  and  partly  in 
the  Hupeh  Province.    The  field  of  this  mission  covers 


CHINA,    JAPAN    AND    ISLANDS  177 

six  thousand  square  miles  and  has  a  population  of  be- 
tween three  and  four  millions.  The  working  force 
includes  twenty-one  missionaries,  two  of  them  med- 
ical missionaries,  and  ninety-eight  native  helpers.  The 
Christians   number   twenty-six   hundred. 

The  Norwegian  Synod  has  had  a  mission  in  Honan 
since  1912.  Kere  ten  missionaries  are  at  work  in 
three  stations. 

The  Norivegian  Free  Church  has  been  at  work  in 
Honan  since  191 5.  There  are  six  missionaries  at  work 
in  a  section  the  population  of  which  numbers  two  mil- 
lion. 

The  Norivegian  Lutheran  Brethren  Society  estab- 
lished its  mission  in  Honan  in  1900.  There  are  four- 
teen missionaries  at  work. 

Another  ^^"he  Augustana  Synod*  has  had  since 

Large  Field.  1^05  a  mission  in  the  Honan  province 
and  now  has  fourteen  men  and  five  women  at  work 
there.  The  field  is  in  the  form  of  a  trianele  with  one 
corner  at  Hsu-Cheo,  one  at  Nan-Yang-Fu  and  the 
third  at  Honan-Fu.  Its  area  is  about  ten  thousand 
square  miles,  a  little  less  than  the  State  of  Minnesota, 
with  a  population  ten  times  as  large,  that  is,  about 
three  million.  The  province  of  Honan  v/as  one  of 
the  last  to  submit  to  the  invasion  of  the  missionary 
and  the  first  missionaries  of  the  Augustana  Synod  suf- 
fered during  their  search  for  a  mission  field  from  the 
feeling  against   the    foreigner.     T'tr    experience    is 


A   part  of  the   General   Council. 


178  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

vividly  described  by  their  first  missionary,  the  Rev. 
Edwins. t 

A  Perilous  "^0  our  knowledge  no  danger  threat- 

Journey,  ened  us  at  any  time  except  on  the  sec- 

ond day  of  our  journey.  Then  it  happened  that  we 
were  attacked  at  a  country  village  where  two  of  the 
common  Chinese  open-air  theatres  had  attracted  a  con- 
course of  about  two  thousand  idle  spectators.  Through 
the  village  street,  which  was  crowded  to  the  utmost, 
our  clumsy  mule  carts  had  to  make  their  way.  On 
seeing  that  we  were  foreigners  many  in  the  crowd 
began  to  yell  out  a  kind  of  unearthly  war-whoop.  Our 
drivers  were  somewhat  uneasy  and  desired  to  move 
on  as  fast  as  the  dense  crowd  would  make  way.  The 
two-wheeled  cart  swayed  from  side  to  side  on  the  un- 
even road.  A  basket  of  Chinese  steamed  bread  was 
upset  by  a  slight  collision  with  one  of  our  carts.  The 
vendor,  a  young  boy,  screamed  loudly  as  his  little 
loaves  rolled  on  the  ground  and  were  snatched  up  by 
the  thievish  bj^standers.  This  episode  increased  the 
commotion.  Little  by  little,  however,  our  carts  plowed 
their  way  through  the  dense  mass  of  surging  humanity, 
and  we  were  soon  on  the  point  of  leaving  the  crowd 
behind  us,  but  then  the  mob  followed  us  hooting  and 
yelling  and  hurling  at  us  and  our  mules  and  vehicles 
whatever  missiles  were  at  hand.  Some  of  our  little 
company  received  heavy  biows.  The  mules  pulling 
the  foremost  cart  stopped  ai  d  for  a  moment  it  seemed 


fThis  account  is  taken  from  Our  First  Decade  in  China, 
published  by  the  China  Board  of  the  Augustana  Synod. 


CHINA,    JAPAN    AND    ISLANDS  179 

that  we  must  be  surrounded,  but  fortunately  our  driv- 
ers succeeded  in  getting  the  animals  started  again  and 
by  rapid  driving  we  managed  to  outdistance  the  howl- 
ing mob." 

Provided  with  a  military  escort,  travelling  by  an- 
other route  and  aided  by  the  workers  of  the  China  In- 
land Mission,  the  Americans  selected  their  field.  To- 
day thirty-two  missionaries  are  preaching  and  teaching. 
Two  hospitals  and  a  school  for  the  blind  have  been 
established.  In  191 5  the  Synod  contributed  $40,000 
to  this  work. 

Co-operation  Recently  all  the  Lutheran  Missions  in 
a  Reality.  Central  China  united  in  a  co-operative 

plan  of  educational  work,  which  it  is  expected  will 
result  in  economy  and  efficiency.  A  union  theological 
seminary  was  established  at  Shekow  in  Hupeh  Pro- 
vince near  Hankow  and  a  union  college,  a  union  pub- 
lishing house,  and  a  union  periodical  are  under  con- 
sideration. In  the  words  of  a  Lutheran  missionary  his- 
torian :  "Co-operation  is  not  only  a  watchword  but 
an  established  reality  in  the  Lutheran  missions  of 
China ;  and  thus  the  foreign  missions  of  our  American 
Lutheran  Church  excel  the  home-churches  in  wisdom 
and  working  efficiency." 

The  Heart  ^^^    opportunities    of    the    Lutheran 

of  China.  Church  in  Central  China  are  set  forth 

in  Our  First  Decade  in  China.  "It  will  appear  in 
looking  at  the  map  of  China  and  noting  the  impor- 
tant position  that  the  Lutheran  Church  holds  geograph- 
ically, that  God  has  meant  her  to  be  a  dominating  force 


180  THE  STORY  OP  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

in  new  China.  He  has  entrusted  to  her  the  very  heart 
of  China.  The  Lutheran  Church  occupies  in  the  cen- 
tral provinces  territory  equal  to  all  of  Illinois  and 
Iowa  and  half  of  Wisconsin,  or  as  large  as  the  whole 
of  New  England  plus  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  New 
Jersey,  Delaware  and  half  of  Maryland.  In  this  ter- 
ritory she  is  rr'inisteriiig  to  a  population  of  fifty  mil- 
lion souls." 

A    hundred    years    have    passed    since 

The  Work  of  j^^^g^.^  Morrison,  the  English  mission- 
a  Century.  ^  _  " 

ary,  baptized  his  first  convert  and  re- 
corded in  his  diary,  "At  a  spring  of  water  issuing 
from  the  foot  of  a  lofty  hill,  by  the  seaside,  away  from 
human   observation,    I   baptized   him  in   the   name   of 

the  Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost May  he  be 

the  first  fruits  of  a  great  harvest."  To-day  there 
are  in  China  over  five  thousand  foreign  missionaries, 
seventeen  thousand  native  workers  and  two  hundred 
and  thirty-five  thousand  communicant  members  of  the 
Protestant  Church.  Of  these  about  ten  per  cent,  are 
Lutherans. 

Japan. 

Japan  proper  consists  of  four  large  Is- 
lands, Yezo,  Hondo,  Shikoku  and  Ky- 
ushu and  about  three  thousand  smaller  islands.  In 
the  northern  part  the  climate  is  severe,  in  the  soutnern 
part  semi-tropical.  From  north  to  south  through  the 
center  of  the  large  islands  runs  a  long  line  of  volcanic 
mountains  whose  highest  peaks  are  still  active.     From 


The  Land. 


CHINA,    JAPAN    AND    ISLANDS  181 

this  high  ridge  the  land  slopes  gradually  to  either 
shore.  Only  about  one-tenth  can  be  cultivated,  an 
area  which  is  equal  to  about  one-tenth  of  the  State 
of  California.  From  this  soil  about  fifty-three  mil- 
lion persons  draw  their  sustenance. 

Like    the    Chinese,    the    Japanese    se- 
The  Religion.       ,  ,.,..,  , 

lects   his   religion   from    among    three 

great  religions,  Shintoism,  Buddhism  and  Confucian- 
ism. Like  the  Chinese  he  frequently  thinks  it  well 
to  mix  the  three.  If  he  is  a  Confucianist,  he  is  thor- 
oughly trained  in  the  rules  which  govern  man's  rela- 
tion to  the  State  and  to  his  fellow  man ;  if  he  is  a 
Buddhist,  he  learns  self-control  and  self  discipline  in 
order  that  he  may  at  the  last  become  absorbed  into 
a  vague  impersonal  diety ;  if  he  is  a  Shintoist  he  wor- 
ships the  rulers  and  his  ancestors. 

The  Japanese  is  intensely  patriotic  and 
The  Japanese        •  •  i  i  •    m  j  ,  xj- 

a  Lover  of  invariably    civil    and    courteous.     His 

Beauty  and  love  of  beauty  finds  expression  in  al- 
a    Fatalist.  ,        .,         r     i  •       ^•r        l- 

most    every    detail    or     his    lire,     his 

practical    ability    needs    no    further    proof    than    the 

adaptation  of  the  nation's  millions  to  its  circumscribed 

area.     His  life  is  happy;  but  the  volcanic  eruptions, 

numerous    earthquakes,    dreadful    tidal    waves    which 

bring  to  his  lips  a  patient  smile  and  a  fatalistic  word 

"No  help  for  it"  must  stir  in  the  depths  of  his  human 

heart   other   feelings,   however   unexpressed   of   terror 

and  dismay.     To  him,  so  far  lifted  above  many  other 

non-Christians  but  lacking  the  chief  thing,  the  Chris- 


182  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

tian's  God  offers  peace  for  terror  and  assurance  for 
dismay. 

Scandinavian  Societies. 

There  is  but  one  European  Lutheran  Society 
in  Japan,  the  Lutheran  Gospel  Association  of  Finland, 
which  has  six  men  and  three  women  in  its  field  north- 
west of  Tokyo,  where  it  began  to  work  in  1902. 

American  Societies. 

"Kyushu  The  mission  of  the   United  Synod  in 

Gakuin."  the  South  was  begun  in  1892.     It  has 

met  with  the  difficulties  and  obstacles  common  to  all 
young  enterprises  and  is  now  well-established.  Its 
chief  stations  are  in  Saga,  a  city  of  thirty-five  thousand, 
in  Kumamoto,  a  city  of  sixty-five  thousand  and  in 
Fukuoka,  which,  together  with  its  twin  city  Hakata 
has  a  population  of  eighty  thousand.  The  island  of 
Kyushu  upon  which  these  cities  lie  is  densely  popu- 
lated, and  there  is  an  average  of  only  one  Protestant 
Christian  to  over  one  thousand  of  the  people.  In  the 
city  of  Kumamoto  is  located  the  educational  insti- 
tution of  the  United  Synod  and  the  only  Lutheran 
educational  institution  in  Japan,  called  Kyushu 
Gakuin,  which  consists  of  a  middle  school  and  a 
theological  department  for  the  training  of  native 
workers.  Here  almost  six  hundred  boys  and  young 
men  are  being  educated,  who  are  but  a  small  part  of 
those  who  would  gladly  come  if  there  were  larger 
accommodations.    The  work  among  the  little  children 


CHINA,    JAPAN    AND    ISLANDS  183 

in  Sunday  schools  and  kindergartens  meets  with  hearty 
support  at  home,  a  work  whose  joys  it  is  easy  to  com- 
prehend. The  United  Synod  has  at  work  four  mis- 
sionary families  and  two  single  women.  Its  baptized 
membership  is  over  six  hundred. 

The  second  American  Lutheran  body 
Candidates  to  eater  Japan  was  the  Danish  Synod 

tian  Work.  which  established  itself  in  1 898  in  the 

same  neighborhood,  its  chief  station 
being  at  Kurume.  At  Kurume  it  has  a  baptized  mem- 
bership of  one  hundred  and  forty  four.  From  this  con- 
gregation ten  young  men  have  during  the  last  few  years 
oiiered  themselves  for  training  in  Christian  work. 
The  Danes  send  to  the  school  at  Kumamoto  a  resident 
professor,  the  Rev.  J.  M.  T.  IVinther,  who  is  a  highly 
efficient  teacher. 

A  Student  The  last  of    the  American    Lutherans 

Dormitory.  to  establish  a  mission  in  Japan  was  the 

General  Council,  which  in  1908  began  work  in  Tokyo, 
the  chief  city  of  the  Empire.  It  has  now  a  second 
station  at  Nagoya.  Besides  its  preaching  and  edu- 
cational work  the  mission  conducts  a  dormitory  for 
students  who  come  to  Tokyo  to  attend  the  university. 
It  is  hoped  by  means  of  Christian  influence  and  by 
the  Christian  services  which  these  young  men  are  re- 
quired to  attend  to  win  many.  There  are  two  mis- 
sionary families  in  residence  and  a  baptized  member- 
ship of  tw^enty-eight.  The  General  Council  main- 
tains a  professor  in  the  school  at  Kumamoto  and  con- 


184  THE  STORY  OP  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

tributes  at  present  a  third  of  the  running  expenses  of 
the  school. 

One  of  the  many  happy  features  of  Lutheran  work 
in  Japan  is  the  friendly  co-operation  of  the  three 
American  Boards.  It  is  the  intention  of  them  and 
their  missionaries  to  build  up  a  single,  united  Japanese 
Church.  Freely  aiding  one  another,  all  lending  their 
services  to  the  building  up  of  the  school  in  Kumamoto, 
they  are  directed  by  a  common  conference  and  their 
financial  matters  are  managed  by  a  single  treasurer. 

In  the  words  of  a  missionary  of  the 

The  Christian  United  Synod  in  the  South,  "Every 
Church   in  ....  .  ,  ,  . 

Japan.  mdication  pomts  to   the   ultimate  suc- 

cess of  the   Church   in  Japan.     Only 

lethargy  and  unbelief  can  rob  her  of  the  victory 

The  leaven  of  Christ's  Gospel  has  been  working  in 
Japanese  society  for  half  a  century,  and  under  its 
influence  the  whole  lump  is  gradually  undergoing  a 
subtle  change.  There  are  higher  ideals  of  social  and 
civic  righteousness;  different  conceptions  of  respon- 
sibility toward  the  weak;  a  growing  consciousness  of 
sin,  which  never  existed  before;  dissatisfaction  with 
present  religious  and  moral  conditions;  an  impelling 
desire  to  progress  along  the  lines  of  the  highest  ma- 
terial and  spiritual  development  of  the  west A 

learned  professor  in  the  Imperial  University,  himself 
a  non-Christian,  has  said :  'Buddhism  can  never  again 
control  the  thought  of  Japan;  Christianity  will  rule 
the  life  of  New  Japan.'  " 


china,  japan  and  islands  185 

The  East  Indies. 

.,,,        „  Southeast  of  India  lies  a  group  of  large 

Where  Every        ,  r    t- 

Prospect  islands   known   by   the  name   of    East 

Pleases.  Indies.     These  are  colonial  possessions 

of  Holland.  Their  population  numbering  thirty-eight 
million  is  divided  among  various  tribes  of  the  Malay 
race  whose  character  is  as  varied  as  that  of  the  dif- 
ferent tribes  of  Africa.  The  land  is  rich  and  its 
products  many,  among  them  sugar-cane,  coffee,  rice, 
spices  and  all  varieties  of  tropical  fruits.  Many  sec- 
tions are  covered  with  forests  of  valuable  timber. 

There  are  Lutheran  missionaries  on  the  islands  of 
Borneo,  Sumatra,  Nias,  Java  and  on  the  group  to  the 
west  of  Sumatra,  which  are  called  the  Batoe  Islands. 
On  the  fertile  and  beautiful  Island  of 
Borneo  the  Rhenish  Society*  has  had 
its  missionaries  for  eighty  years.  Beginning  along  the 
southeast  coast,  the  missionaries  pushed  gradually  into 
the  interior  by  way  of  the  rivers.  The  Dyaks  among 
whom  they  labored  were  the  fiercest  of  savages  and 
"head  hunters."  Finally  eight  stations  were  estab- 
lished and  the  future  appeared  bright,  when  in  1859 
during  a  rebellion  of  the  Malays  against  their  Dutch 
rulers,  the  Dyaks  became  involved.  In  the  struggle 
which  ensued,  all  the  inland  stations  were  destroyed 
and  seven  of  the  missionaries  were  murdered.  In  a 
few  years  the  work  was  recommenced.  To-day  there 
are  eighteen  missionaries  and  the  native  church  num- 
bers about  three  thousand  five  hundred. 


*It    should    be    remembered    that   the    Rhenish    Society    is 
largely  but   not   entirely  Lutheran. 


186  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

Sumatra--A  ^^^  more  than  fifty  years,  since   1861, 

Great  the   Rhenish   Society   has  conducted    a 

Achievement.  mission  in  the  island  of  Sumatra.  The 
larger  part  of  the  population  is  Mohammedan,  but 
in  the  interior  there  are  tribes  who  still  retain  their 
primitive  religion.  Among  these  tribes  are  the 
Bataks,  who  have  a  speech  and  written  characters 
of  their  own.  Once  cannibals,  they  had  been  before 
the  advent  of  the  Rhenish  Missionary  Society  the 
object  of  evangelizing  work  which  had  failed.  In 
spite  of  constant  danger  the  early  missionaries  con- 
tinued faithful.  The  annals  of  missions  have  scarcely 
anywhere  a  greater  victory  to  record.  There  is  now 
a  well  organized  church  partly  self-supporting. 
Thirty  Batak  native  preachers  have  been  ordained 
and  work  is  carried  on  at  forty-one  main  stations  and 
five  hundred  out-stations.  Twenty-seven  thousand  five 
hundred  Batak  children  are  being  educated  in  five 
hundred  schools.  There  is  a  training  school  for 
native  preachers,  a  hospital,  a  leper  asylum  and  a 
large  industrial  school.  The  Christian  community 
numbers  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand. 

During  the  last  twenty  years  the  Rhen- 

T^  ^  or  o  jgj^  Society  has  sent  out  deaconesses  to 
Deaconesses.  -^ 

take  special  charge  of  the  work  among 
women.  They  manage  the  girls'  schools,  teach  and 
give  Bible  lessons  to  married  and  unmarried  women 
and  try  in  every  way  to  further  the  development  of 
their  own  sex. 


CHINA,    JAPAN    AND    ISLANDS  187 

Not  only  have  the  Rhenish  missionaries  won  a  large 
harvest  from  among  the  Bataks,  but  they  are  winning 
also  many  converts  from  among  the  Mohammedans, 
a  much  more  difficult  task. 

The  effect  of  the  Christian  religion  is  described  in  a 
letter  from  a  Rhenish  missionary  in  Sumatra. 
A  Land  "What  a  difference  between  now  and 

Transformed.  thirteen  years  ago !  Then  everything 
was  unsafe ;  no  one  dared  to  go  half  an  hour's  distance 
from  his  village ;  war,  robbery,  piracy  and  slavery 
reigned  everywhere.  Now  there  is  a  free,  active  Chris- 
tian life,  and  churches  full  of  attentive  hearers.  The 
faith  of  our  young  Christians  is  seen  in  their  deeds. 
They  have  renounced  idolatrous  customs;  they  visit 
the  sick,  and  pray  with  them ;  they  go  to  their  enemies 
and  make  conciliation  with  them.  This  has  often  made 
a  powerful  impression  on  the  heathen,  because  they  saw 
that  the  Christians  could  do  what  was  impossible  to 
heathen — they  could  forgive  injuries.  Many  heathen 
have  been  so  overcome  by  this  conduct  of  the  Christians 
that  they  came  to  us  and  said:  'The  Lord  Jesus  has 
conquered.'  " 

The  failure  of  Mohammedanism  to  meet  the  deep 
need  of  the  human  soul  is  shown  in  another  letter  from 
a  Rhenish  missionary  in  the  same  field. 
In  the  "Here   I   must  make   mention   of   the 

Last  Hour.  faithful  Asenath,  whom  on  the  last  day 

of  the  old  year  we  committed  to  the  bosom  of  the  earth. 
After  an  illness  patiently  endured  for  two  years  she 
felt  her  end  approaching.    As  the  last  provision  for  her 


188  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

waj^  she  wished  yet  once  more  to  enjoy  the  Holy  Sup- 
per. I  administered  it  to  her  in  her  roomy  house  before  a 
large  assemblage.  As  I  was  about  to  give  her  the 
bread  she  said,  'Let  me  first  pray.'  And  now  the 
woman,  who  for  weeks  had  not  been  able  to  sit  upright, 
straightened  herself  up,  and  prayed  for  fully  ten 
minutes,  as  if  she  would  fain  pray  away  every  earthly 
care  out  of  her  heart.  I  have  seldom  heard  a  woman 
pray  in  such  wise.  Thereupon  she  received  the  sacred 
elements.  The  next  day  I  found  with  her  a  Moham- 
medan chieftain,  who  on  taking  leave  wished  her  health 
and  long  life.  'What  say  you?'  she  replied,  'after  that 
I  have  no  further  longing.  My  wish  is  now  to  go  to 
heaven,  to  my  Lord.  Death  has  no  longer  any  terrors 
for  me.'  Astonished,  the  Mohammedan  replied:  'Such 
language  is  strange  to  us.  We  shrink  and  cower  be- 
fore death,  and  therefore  use  every  means  possible  to 
recover  and  live  long.' 

"Even  so  I  think  of  our  James,  whose 
The  Beams  of      ^^j  j^^j   ^j^       ^^^^   ^^  ^^^  f^_ 

a  Living  Hope.  ■' 

neral    I   pressed   his   hand,   with   some 

words  of  comfort,  he  said:  'Only  do  not  suppose  that 
I  murmur  and  complain.  All  that  God  does  to  me,  is 
good  and  wholesome  for  me.  I  shall  hereafter  find 
my  son  again  in  life  eternal.'  So  vanish  little  by  little 
the  comfortless  wailings  of  heathenism ;  the  beams  of 
a  living  hope  penetrate  the  pangs  and  the  terrors  of 
death,  as  the  beams  of  the  sun  the  clouds  of  the  night. 
And,  as  the  hopelessness  of  heathenism  is  disappearing, 
so  is  also  its  implacability.    When  Christians  contend, 


CHINA,    JAPAN    AND    ISLANDS  189 

and  at  the  Communion  I  say  to  them:  'Give  each 
other  j'our  hands',  often  they  say:  'Nature  is  against  it; 
but  how  can  I  withstand  the  graciousness  of  my 
Saviour  ?'  Such  words  are  not  seldom  heard.  And  am 
I  not  well  entitled  to  hope,  that  they,  as  a  great  gift  of 
my  God,  warrant  a  confident  hope  in  the  final  and 
glorious  victory  of  the  Prince  of  Life,  and  of  his  great 
and  righteous  cause?" 

On  the  Island  of  Nias  and  in  some  of 
the  lesser  islands,  the  Rhenish  mis- 
sionaries have  been  at  work  since  1865.  Here  there 
are  about  a  quarter  of  a  million  inhabitants  who  are 
racially  related  to  the  Bataks.  Persisting  through 
many  years  with  but  a  few  baptisms,  the  missionaries 
were  finally  rewarded.  There  are  now  thirteen 
stations  with  eighteen  thousand  Christians.  The  num- 
ber of  inquiries  is  greatest  in  those  portions  of  the 
island  where  heathenism  is  the  least  broken,  and  the 
whole  island  seems  to  be  open  to  the  Gospel. 

The  Rhenish  missionaries  have  in  all  in  Malaysia 
Christian  communities  whose  total  inhabitants  number 
one  hundred  and  sixty-five  thousand,  of  whom  seventy- 
five  thousand  are  church  members.  It  is  a  rule 
of  the  Rhenish  society  to  exercise  the  greatest 
care  in  baptizing  converts  so  that  only  those  shall  be 
accepted  who  are  worthy  and  who  understand  the  step 
which  they  are  taking. 

The  beautiful   Island   of  Java  to  the 

Southeast  of  Sumatra  has  been  called 

Holland's    treasure    house.     Though    the    island    has 


190  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

been  under  Christian  control  for  three  centuries  the 
results  of  mission  work  do  not  make  a  very  large 
showing.  The  largest  of  the  Protestant  Christian 
societies  at  work  is  the  German  Neukirchen  Mission 
which  has  eleven  principal  stations,  with  twenty-nine 
workers.  Java  is  inhabited  chiefly  by  Mohammedans 
who  have  here  a  university  and  who  have  issued  the 
Koran  in  the  Javanese  language.  These  Mohamme- 
dans are  more  willing  to  listen  to  the  Gospel  teach- 
ing than  those  in  many  other  parts  of  the  world. 
The  Batoe  O"  the  Batoe  Islands  south  of  Nias,  a 

Islands.  Dutch    Lutheran    Missionary    Society 

has  a  station  with  two  missionaries  and  five  hundred 
Christians. 

Australia. 

Originally  the  continent    of  Australia 
Destruction         ^^^  occupied  by  Papuans,    who    have 

of  the  Native  httn  gradually  exterminated  or  driven 
Australians.  .  .  ^^,       ,  .  ,     , 

mto  reservations.      1  he  history  or  the 

Australian  native  affords  a  record  of  injustice  and 
almost  incredible  cruelty.  The  first  foreign  settlers 
were  a  band  of  criminals  quartered  there  by  England ; 
then  as  the  richness  of  the  country  became  known, 
there  arrived  other  settlers  who  with  almost  unthinka- 
ble barbarity  dispossessed  and  murdered  the  natives, 
shooting  them  down  like  beasts,  poisoning  them  in 
crowds,  so  that  to-day  the  great  expanse  of  Australia 
has  within  it  not  more  than  fifty  five  thousand  Papuans. 


CHINA,    JAPAN    AND    ISLANDS  191 

This  little  remnant  is  cared  for  by  the  govern- 
ment and  to  it  go  missionaries  of  various  denomi- 
nations, among  them  those  of  the  Neuendettelsaii 
Mission  which  has  two  stations,  one  at  Elim-Hope  in 
Queensland  and  another  at  Bethesda  in  South  Aus- 
tralia. The  Australian  Immanuei  Synod  which  is 
composed  of  Germans  living  in  Australia  has  a  station 
at  New  Hermannsburg  in  South  Australia. 

New  Guinea. 

Success  Amid  I"  1 886  the  Neuendettelsau  Society 
Danger.  began    to    work    in      New     Guinea. 

There  in  Kaiser  Wilhelm's  Land,  which  is  a  German 
protectorate,  it  has  four  stations.  The  climate  is 
dangerous,  the  language  difficult  to  learn,  and  the 
various  tribes  at  enmity  with  one  another.  Neverthe- 
less the  first  fruits  have  been  gathered,  so  that  in  1909, 
three  thousand  six  hundred  Christians  were  reported. 
Thirty-five  missionaries  are  on  the  field. 

To  the  work  of  this  mission  the  Lutheran  Synod 
of  loiva  contributes. 

In  Kaiser  Wilhelm's  Land  there  is  also  a  mission  of 
the  Rhenish  Society,  which  has  three  stations  round 
Astrolabe  Bay. 

Lutherans  in  the  Near  East. 

An  Untilled  "The  Mohammedan  world,  which  ex- 

Field,  tends  over  the  whole  of  North  Africa, 

part  of  southeast  Europe,  and  from  Arabia  and  Asia 
Minor,  through  Persia  as  far  as  China  and  the  Dutch 


192  THE  STORY  OP  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

East  Indies,  and  which  numbers  one  hundred  and  ninety 
six  million  five  thousand  adherents,  is  still  almost 
entirely  closed  against  the  Gospel.  This  is  true 
not  only  where  there  is  Mohammedan  rule,  and 
where  conversion  to  Christianity  is  by  direction  of  the 
Koran  punished  with  death,  but  also  in  the  Christian 
colonial  dominions  of  British  and  Dutch  India. 
Missions  to  Mohammedans  are  carried  on  by  societies 
and  individuals,  but  considerable  congregations  have 
nowhere  yet  been  formed  from  the  confessors  of  Islam 
with  the  single  exception  of  those  in  Java  and  Sumatra. 
.  .  .  .Besides  Mohammedan  fanaticism,  a  special 
hindrance  which  has  to  be  reckoned  with  is  the  un- 
fortunate connection  of  religion  with  politics.  Not 
only  are  the  Mohammedan  governments  inspired  with 
the  greatest  distrust  towards  evangelical  missionaries, 
as  if  they  were  the  instigators  of  sedition,  but  missions 
are  also  impeded  by  the  political  jealousy  of  the 
Christian  powers," 

Thus  wrote  Doctor  Warneck,  the  great  Lutheran 
historian  of  missions  in  1902!  He  went  on  to  speak 
of  the  policies  of  Russia,  England  and  Germany, 
which  jealously  forbade  the  touching  of  Turkey.  The 
good  man  is  no  longer  living — what  would  be  his 
emotions  if  he  could  look  in  191 7  upon  the  Near  East 
and  the  confusion  which  political  jealousy  has  wrought! 

The  Lutheran  Church  has  made  but  little  effort 
either  to  revive  the  ancient  Christian  churches  of  the 
East,  or  to  convert  the  Mohammedans.  The  most 
ambitious  plans  were  those  of  the  Basel  Society  whose 


OFFICERS   AND    TKACUKiit    Ui     i.l   liiLU.i:.    oL.XDAY    SCHOOL, 

NEW    AMSTERDAM,    BRITISH    GUIANA. 

ITl  NI     SCHOOL     IN     SCHOOL     ROOM     WHICH     IS     ALSO     THE 

CHURCH. 

SOME     INDIAN     MEMBERS     OF     ITUNI     CONGREGATION. 


CHINA,    JAPAN    AND    ISLANDS  193 

leader,  Christian  Frederic  Spittler,  dreamed  of  an 
apostolic  road  from  Jerusalem  to  Gondar  in  Abyssinia. 
The  early  work  of  the  Basel  Society  in  Russia  and 
Persia  was  ended  by  imperial  command, 
A  Lutheran  Among  the  various  German  mission- 
Orphanage.  ary  enterprises  in  Palestine  which  draw 
a  large  part  of  their  support  from  Lutheran  sources, 
is  the  Syrian  Orphanage  outside  Jerusalem,  which  for 
sixty-six  years  has  been  training  children  in  useful 
trades.  Here  carpentry,  joinery,  printing,  tailoring, 
shoe-making,  blacksmithing  and  brick-making  are 
taught.  Its  founder  was  Pastor  Schneller,  at  whose 
death  it  was  continued  by  his  son.  Now  more  than 
two  hundred  boys  are  enrolled,  many  of  whom  are 
confirmed  in  the  Lutheran  Church.  A  few  years  ago 
a  school  for  the  blind  was  added  which  received  both 
boys  and  girls,  who  are  taught  basket-weaving,  chair 
and  brush-making. 

Another  German  enterprise  which  is  partly  Lu- 
theran is  the  German  Orient  Mission  founded  in  1895. 
From  its  printing  press  at  Philipopolis  it  has  issued 
translations  of  the  New  Testament  and  other  reli- 
gious literature  into  Turkish.  Two  Turks  who  were 
converted  were  compelled  to  take  refuge  in  Germany. 

The  German  Jerusalem  Union  has  been  at  work 
since  1852.  Its  chief  care  is  for  the  German  churches 
in  Palestine,  but  it  conducts  also  mission  work  in  the 
old   Christian  Arab  population. 

The  German  Jerusalem  Association  was  founded  in 
1889  for  the  benefit  of  the  German  Evangelical  con- 


194  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

gregation  in  Jerusalem,  This  is  in  no  sense  a  mis- 
sionary enterprise,  but  the  fact  that  it  is  supported 
and  authorized  by  the  German  government  gives  im- 
portance to  all  the  German  Lutheran  w^ork  in  Pales- 
tine. In  1898  the  German  Emperor  and  Empress 
were  present  at  the  dedication  of  the  Church  of 
the  Redeemer,  supported  by  this  organization.  This 
church  building  stands  w^ithin  the  walls  of  the  city 
not  far  from  the  Church  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre. 

Schools    and    hospitals    at    Jerusalem, 

The  Work  Beirut,   Constantinople  and   Cairo  are 

of    Deaconesses. 

supported  and  conducted  by  the  Kai- 

serswerth  Deaconesses,  who  for  sixty  years  have  labored 

in  the  East.     The  last  report  gave  one  hundred  and 

twenty-eight  as  the  number  actively  engaged. 

The  Danish  Lutherans  have  small  stations  in  Syria, 
Asia  Minor  and  Arabia. 

The  Church  of  Sweden  conducts  a  hospital  in  Beth- 
lehem. 

The  only  direct  work  by  American  Lutherans  for 
the  Near  East  is  done  through  the  small  Intersynodical 
Orient  Mission  Society  of  the  American  Norwegians, 
Swedes  and  Germans,  whose  field  is  Kurdistan.  The 
Joint  Synod  of  Ohio  supports  a  missionary  in  Persia, 
a  vast  and  uncultivated  field,  where  there  is  one  mis- 
sionary to  two  hundred  and  twenty-one  thousand  of  the 
population.  There  has  also  been  another  Lutheran 
Society  at  work,  the  Syro-Chaldean. 


CHINA,    JAPAN    AND    ISLANDS  195 

A  Lutheran  ^^  ^^  doubtful  whether  all  other  enter- 
Scholar,  prises  for  the  conversion  of  the  Jews 
have  equalled  in  bulk  or  importance  the  work  of  a 
Lutheran,  Dr.  Franz  Delitzsch,  one  of  the  most  cel- 
ebrated scholars  of  his  time,  who  was  born  in  1813, 
and  who  died  in  Leipsic  in  1890.  His  greatest  de- 
votion was  given  to  mission  work  for  the  Jews,  and 
for  them  he  translated  the  New  Testament  into  He- 
brew. The  first  chapters  appeared  in  1838;  by  1888 
eightv  thousand  copies  had  been  published.  Though 
to  millions  of  Jews  the  languages  of  the  countries  in 
which  they  sojourned  had  become  familiar,  yet  to 
them  religion  and  religious  instruction  could  be  given 
in  no  other  tongue  than  the  sacred  Hebrew  to  which 
they  were  accustomed. 

Doctor  Delitzsch's  translation  was  not  the  first 
which  had  been  made,  but  like  Luther's  translation  of 
the  Bible  into  German  it  far  surpassed  in  accuracy 
and  literary  value  all  that  had  gone  before. 

On  account  of  his  close  friendship  with  the  fathers 
of  the  Missouri  Lutherans  in  this  country,  Doctor 
Delitzsch's  name  is  a  familiar  one  to  a  large  part  of 
the  American  Church. 

Beside  his  translation  of  the  New  Testament  he 
contributed  many  other  works  to  Hebrew  literature, 
tracts  upon  various  subjects,  commentaries,  and  a 
monthly  journal. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Lutheran  Foreign  Missions  on  the 
Western  Continent 

South  America 

Porto  Rico 

The  American  Indian 

Alaska 

The  American  Negro 

Conclusion. 


The  Land. 


Chapter  VI. 

LUTHERAN   FOREIGN  MISSIONS  ON  THE  WESTERN 
CONTINENT 

South  America. 

To  a  large  proportion  of  the  Americans 
who  are  interested  in  missions  Asia  and 
Africa  are  better  known  than  the  great  continent  of 
South  America  which  lies  so  much  nearer.  Of  the 
physical  features  of  South  America  it  is  necessary  to 
speak  in  superlative  terms.  Here  is  the  largest  river 
in  the  world,  the  Amazon,  wnth  thirty  thousand  miles 
of  navigable  waterway,  here  are  the  densest  forests, 
here  is  the  greatest  mountain  range.  The  continent  is 
five  thousand  miles  long  and  at  its  broadest  point, 
three  thousand  miles  wide.  Its  long  coast  line  offers 
splendid  harbors;  its  interior  table  lands  abundant 
minerals  and  metals  and  a  fertile  soil. 

For  many  centuries  the  Indian  held  South  America 
for  his  own.  Unmolested  from  without,  troubled  only 
by  quarrels  with  his  neighbors,  he  lived  and  died  for 
the  most  in  slothful  ignorance. 

This  quiet  was  interrupted  when  the 

The  First  Spaniards  and   Portugese  took  posses- 

Immigrants.  _  . 

sion  of  the  country  by  right  of  con- 
quest. Once  opened  to  the  world,  the  continent  be- 
came the  destination  of  thousands  of  settlers,  not  only 


200  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

from  Spain  and  Portugal  but  from  other  European 
nations,  many  of  whom  built  up  large  fortunes.  The 
relation  between  them  and  the  natives  is  described  by 
R.  J.  Hunt.  "Some  of  the  early  colonists  were  of  a 
friendly  disposition,  and  treated  the  natives  kindly, 
much  in  the  same  way  as  they  did  their  horses  or  their 
dogs;  others,  with  a  high  sense  of  honor,  were  just  and 
considerate  to  the  aboriginees;  a  fair  percentage  of 
them,  especially  those  in  the  wild,  remote  districts, 
freely  mingled  with  the  natives  and  married  one  or 
more  of  their  women;  but  the  great  majority  looked 
upon  the  natives  with  suspicion  and  distrust  if  not 
with  abhorrence. 

"With  the  influx  of  immigrants  and 
The  Opening  ^^^  natural  increase  of  the  descendants 
of  the  Country,    of   the   pioneers   came   the   growth   of 

trade,  the  extension  of  agricultural  pur- 
suits, and  the  opening  of  mines.  There  came  simul- 
taneously the  desire  for  independence  and  the  conse- 
quent rise  of  republics  with  a  demand  for  progress 
and  a  clear  determination  of  territorial  bounds.  Rail- 
ways were  opened  in  various  directions,  the  great  rivers 
were  supplied  with  steamers,  trade  was  increased,  com- 
panies were  formed  and  numerous  interests  started. 
For  scientific  and  commercial  purposes  expeditions  up 
the  great  waterways  and  across  the  trackless  plains 
were  organized  and  carried  out  with  varying  success; 
but  even  to-day  there  remain  vast  regions  unknown 
and  unexplored  except  by  the  red  Indians."* 

*Missionary  Revteiu  of  the   World,  July   191 1. 


LUTHERAN    CHAF'EL,    MONACILLO,    PORTO    RICO,    WITH    TWO 
MISSIONARIES  AND   TWO   NATIVE   WORKERS. 


PORTO    RICAN     HUT    WITH     MISS    MELLANDER     AND     THREE 
MEMBERS     OF     CHURCH     AT    PALO     SECO. 


THE    WESTERN    CONTINENT  201 

— —  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  its  ten  politi- 
The  Darkness  cal  divisions  are  republics,  and  that  it 
America.  ^^s    produced    men    of    distinguished 

rank  as  scientists  and  scholars,  South 
America  is  on  the  whole  a  land  of  dense  ignorance, 
not  only  among  the  Indian  population  but  among  the 
mixed  or  pure  descendants  of  the  European  settlers. 
In  spiritual  things  the  ignorance  is  tenfold  increased. 
Of  the  hundreds  of  tribes  of  Indians,  many  have  never 
heard  the  Gospel,  and  to  only  ten  millions  of  the  popu- 
lation has  it  been  presented  in  any  intelligible  form. 
Rome,  which  has  claimed  South  America  for  its  own 
has  done  little  to  raise  the  natives  from  their  degraded 
condition  or  to  enlighten  their  darkness,  and  has  op- 
posed most  bitterly  the  spread  of  the  pure  Gospel 
among  them.  The  priests  declare  that  the  Protestant 
Bible  is  an  immoral  book  which  will  do  great  harm  to 
him  who  reads,  and  make  every  effort  to  destroy  all  the 
copies  which  they  can  find.  Nor  do  they  offer  their 
own  version.  Doctor  Robert  Speer  is  reported  to  have 
said  that  visiting  seventy  of  the  largest  cathedrals  in 
South  America,  he  could  find  but  one  Bible,  and  that 
a  Protestant  version,  about  to  be  burned.  Of  the  re- 
ligious condition.  Doctor  Warneck  says,  "The  Cathol- 
icism is  of  a  kind  that,  according  to  even  Catholic 
testimonies,  is  more  heathen  than  Christian.  There 
are  many  crosses  but  no  word  of  the  Cross;  many 
saints,  but  no  followers  of  Christ." 

Against    the    domination    of    the    Catholic    Church 
the  most  intelligent  of  the  population  have  rebelled 


202  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

and  men  especially  have  ceased  to  believe  in  the  priests 
or   their   teaching.      May   they  upon   leaving  the  old 
find  true  guides  into  new  and  better  things! 
The  The  latest  statistics  give  the  following 

Population.  ^^   f]^^  population   of  South  America: 

^  Whites    18,000,000 

Indians    17,000,000 

Negroes     6,000,000 

Mixed  White  and   Indian 30,000,000 

Mixed  White  and  Negro 8,000.000 

Mixed  Negro  and   Indian 700,000 

East  Indian,  Japanese  and  Chinese.  .  .       300,000 

A  total  of 80,000,000 

Since  South  America  offers  vast  resources  in  a 
sparsely  settled  country,  its  population  will  unquestion- 
ably increase  rapidly  by  immigration. 

Recent    activity    on    the    part    of    the 

The  Roman         Protestants  in  the  interest  of  the  nomi- 

Catholic 

Church  in  nal  Christians  of   South  America  has 

°^^  .  roused  much  opposition  among  Roman 

America.  _  ^^  " 

Catholics.  Among  Protestants  them- 
selves the  question  has  been  debated  with  an  earnest 
desire  to  see  the  right  and  wrong  of  this  problem.  To 
this  question  Dr.  Robert  Speer  has  given  the  fol- 
lowing reasons  for  his  belief  that  such  mission  work 
io  legitimate  and  necessary.  ( i )  The  moral  condi- 
tion of  South  America  warrants  and  demands  the  pres- 
ence of  the  force  of  evangelical  religion  in  a  country 
where  from  one-fourth  to  one-half  of  the  births  are 


THE    WESTERN    CONTINENT  203 

illegitimate  and  where  male  chastity  is  unknown. 
(2)  The  Protestant  missionary  enterprise  with  its 
stimulus  to  education  and  its  appeal  to  the  rational 
nature  of  man  is  required  by  the  intellectual  needs  of 
South  America.  (3)  Protestant  missions  are  justified 
in  order  to  give  the  Bible  to  South  America.  (4) 
Protestant  missions  are  justified  by  the  character  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  priesthood.  (5)  The  Roman 
Church  has  not  given  the  people  Christianity.  It 
offers  them  a  dead  man,  not  a  living  Saviour.  (6) 
The  Catholic  Church  has  steadily  lost  ground;  the 
priests  are  reviled  and  derided ;  religion  is  abandoned 
by  men  to  priests  and  women.  (7)  Protestant  mis- 
sions may  inspire  and  compel  self-cleansing  in  the 
South  American  Catholic  Church.  (8)  Only  the 
Protestant  religion,  free  from  superstition,  reformed. 
Scriptural,  apostolic,  can  meet  the  needs  of  South 
America. 

The  missionary  occupation  of  South  America  has 
been  small ;  indeed  no  country  has  so  low  a  percentage 
of  missionaries.  It  is  said  that  in  any  of  the  ten  coun- 
tries a  missionary  could  have  a  city  and  a  dozen  of 
towns  for  his  parish.  In  some  of  the  countries  he  could 
have  one  or  two  provinces  without  touching  any  other 
evangelical  worker. 

As  Lutheran  missionaries  in  the  person  of  Ziegenbalg 
and  Pliitschau  were  the  first  to  enter  India;  as  Peter 
Heiling,  a  Lutheran,  was  the  first  to  enter  Africa,  so 
the  Lutheran  missionary  Justinian  von  Welz,  of  whose 
stirring  appeal  to  the  Church  we  have  told  in  Chapter 


204  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

I,  entered  South  America,  where  in  Surinam  he  died 
in  1668.  It  gives  us  at  least  some  small  comfort  to 
realize  that  of  all  the  South  American  countries  Suri- 
nam is  to-day  the  most  thoroughly  evangelized,  even 
though  it  is  the  Moravian  and  not  the  Lutheran 
Church  which  has  done  the  work.  After  the  time  of 
Justinian  von  Welz  we  search  in  vain  for  Lutheran 
missions  in  South  America  for  many  years. 

Among  the  emigrants  to  South  Amer- 
Lutherans  i^a  have  been  large  numbers  of  Ger- 

in  South  mans.     For  these  the  Church  at  home 

has  cared  so  that  there  are  many  well- 
established  Lutheran  congregations.  Here  and  there 
these  congregations  have  undertaken  a  little  missionary 
work  among  the  natives,  but  there  has  been  no  or- 
ganized effort  for  their  evangelization  as  in  the  case 
of  Africa  and  Asia. 

American  Lutherans  have  one  mission 

North  Ameri-      in  South  America,  that  of  the  General 

""c^^i?^""'  Synod  in  New  Amsterdam  in  British 
in  South  -^   ^ 

America.  Guiana,  a  colony  with  a  population  of 

about  three  hundred  thousand  of  which 
about  four  thousand  are  Europeans,  the  remainder 
East  Indians,  negroes  and  native  Indians.  In  1743 
Dutch  and  German  Lutherans  founded  here  a  Luth- 
eran church  which  continued  for  a  hundred  years. 
Then,  the  congregation  having  fallen  away,  service  was 
discontinued.  The  property  consisted  of  a  beautiful  old 
church,  a  church  house  and  parsonage,  a  good  deal  of 
valuable  land  and  an  endowment  of  twenty  thousand 


THE    WESTERN    CONTINENT  205 

dollars.  In  1878  the  church  was  again  opened  and  the 
Rev.  John  R.  Mittelholzer  became  its  pastor,  and  the 
congregation  united  with  the  General  Synod. 

The  Missouri  Synod  has  eighty-three  congregations- 
among  the  Germans  in  Brazil  and  Argentine,  a  theo- 
logical seminary  and  many  schools.  Some  of  its  pas- 
tors work  among  the  Portugese  speaking  natives. 

Of  various  recent  plans  for  Lutheran  work  in  South 
America  it  is  still  too  soon  to  speak. 

The  appeal  of  South  America  to  the  Lutheran 
Church  is  thus  expressed  by  those  who  have  studied 
the  subject. 

"Among  the  population  of  South  America  German 
and  Scandinavian  Lutherans  are  present  in  larger  pro- 
portion than  the  members  of  any  other  Protestant  de- 
nomination. 

.-      ^,  "In  Montevideo,  Uruguay,  there  is  a 

Has  the  &     ^  > 

Lutheran  colony  of  five  hundred  German  fami- 

Church  an  ^j^g^    j^^  Bolivia,  there  are  also  many  of 

Opportunity  in  '        _  ^  ^■' 

South  our  people.     In  Chili  there  are  eighty 

America.  thousand  Germans.     They  are  numer- 

ous in  Bogota  and  Barronquilla,  Colombia,  and  in 
Gautemala,  where  Roman  priests  are  prosecuted  and 
Protestant  ministers  welcomed  by  those  in  authority. 
In  Brazil,  which  is  220,000  square  miles  larger  than 
the  entire  United  States,  the  Statesman  s  Year  Book 
declares  that  there  are  one  million  Germans,  besides 
many  Scandinavians.  In  Paraguay,  President  Schierer 
is  a  German,  and  there  are  at  least  two  hundred 
thousand    of    our    people.     In    fact,    there    is    not    a 


206  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

State  or  island  of  this  vast  domain  where  our 
people  are  not  found  as  sheep  without  a  shepherd. 
They  occupy  prominent  and  influential  positions  in 
government,  and  are  dominant  in  the  business  world. 
Once  interested,  they  would  furnish  the  means 
and  the  men  to  care  for  our  own,  and  extend  the  work 
among  the  intellectuals,  the  peons,  the  Indians,  and 
the  negroes  of  Latin  America.  Our  Lutheran  Church 
has  the  largest  opportunity,  consequently  the  greatest 
obligation,  of  all  the  Protestant  Churches  in  these 
southern  lands." 

■**^         Porto  Rico. 

In  Porto  Rico,  where  many  of  the  conditions  of 
South  America  are  repeated  on  a  much  smaller  scale, 
nine  Protestant  churches  are  at  work.  Since  the  island 
is  under  the  control  of  the  United  States,  missions  have 
no  political  opposition  to  meet.  Here,  as  in  South 
America,  the  natives  have  many  crosses  but  no  true 
cross,  many  saints  but  few  true  believers  in  Christ.  A 
missionary  relates  a  discussion  between  two  members 
of  the  native  church,  one  of  whom  worshiped  the  Vir- 
gin who  was  supposed  to  dwell  at  Lourdes,  another  a 
Virgin  who  dwelt  at  some  other  shrine.  Of  Christ  they 
knew  nothing. 

Here  the  General  Council  has  had  a  mission  since 
1899.  It  has  in  all  nine  congregations  and  twelve 
stations  with  more  than  five  hundred  communicant 
members.  Among  its  stations  are  Catano,  San  Juan 
and   Bayamon   where   it  owns   fine  church   properties 


THE    WESTERN     CONTINENT  207 

and  has  excellent  parochial  schools.  In  Catano  there 
is  a  kindergarten  in  connection  with  the  parochial 
school  to  which  Miss  May  Mellander  has  given  j^ears 
of  devoted  service.  In  Catano  the  missionaries  in- 
struct native  teachers. 

The  experience  of  the  General  Council  in  Porto 
Rico  has  been  that  of  all  workers  in  Latin  America. 
They  have  discovered  that  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
has  lost  its  hold  on  the  people  and  that  thousands  are 
longing  for  a  better  way. 

The  American  Indian. 

The  American  Indian  was  so  called,  as  we  know, 
from  the  fact  that  the  discoverers  of  this  continent 
supposed  they  had  reached  the  eastern  coast  of  India. 
Indians  belong  to  one  race,  though  they  call  them- 
selves by  many  different  tribal  names.  How  large 
their  number  was  before  the  advent  of  the  v/hite  man 
it  is  impossible  to  tell;  now,  greatly  diminished  by 
wars  among  themselves,  by  oppression,  by  diseases 
brought  from  abroad  and  especially  by  the  white  man's 
brandy,  they  number  about  three  hundred  thousand. 
Of  these  the  majority  live  in  reservations  appointed  to 
them  by  the  government  of  the  United  States  whose 
later  policy  has  been  to  care  for  them  with  such 
thoroughness  that  for  most  of  them  independent  de- 
velopment is  difficult.  It  is  reckoned  that  among  the 
three  hundred  thousand  about  ninety-two  thou- 
sand are  Christians.  These  are  reliable,  sober  and 
settled.     Almost  none  of  the  Indians  educated  in  the 


208  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

Christian  schools  return  to  the  habits  of  their  fore- 
fathers. 

The  work  of  the  Lutheran  Church  among  the  In- 
dians began,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the  Swedish  settle- 
ment along  the  Deleware  River.  In  Georgia  the 
work  of  the  Salzburgers  was  closed  by  the  re- 
moval of  the  Indians,  an  almost  inevitable  con- 
summation in  the  days  when  the  Indians  were  con- 
stantly shifting  in  flight  or  by  compulsion  from  place 
to  place.  The  Rev.  J.  C.  Hartwig,  one  of  the  pioneer 
ministers  of  the  American  Lutheran  Church  who  died 
in  1 796  left  his  property,  amounting  to  about  seventeen 
thousand  dollars  for  the  establishing  of  a  training 
school  (Hartwick  Seminary)  for  ministers  and  mis- 
sionaries. He  had  in  mind  especially  missionaries 
who  should  work  among  the  American  Indians.  The 
school  was  established  and  when  application  was  made 
to  the  government  to  begin  work  among  the  Indians 
of  Otsego  County,  New  York,  President  Washington 
answered  that  a  special  act  of  Congress  w^ould  be  re- 
quired before  permission  could  be  given. 

Among  the  unconverted  Indians  the  Lutheran 
Church  is  at  work  in  various  places  to-day. 

The  Norwegian  Synod  has  had  a  mission  among 
the  Winnebago  Indians  in  Wisconsin  since  1885.  For 
its  support  they  contributed  in  191 5,  $6,000. 
Here  also  Elling's  Synod  of  the  Norwegian  Church 
has  a  mission. 

In  Arizona  the  Missouri  Synod  has  a  mission. 


THE    WESTERN    CONTINENT  209 

In  Arizona  the  Wisconsin  Synod  has  four  mission 
stations — at  Globe,  a  town  of  about  eight  thousand 
inhabitants,  at  Peridot  on  the  San  Carlos  Indian  Res- 
ervation, at  East  Fork,  and  at  Cibecue.  The  com- 
munity at  East  Fork  has  been  recently  visited  with 
serious  epidemics,  but  the  twenty-five  children  in  the 
Lutheran  school  all  survived  and  were  able  to  return. 
The  village  of  Cibecue  lies  far  from  the  railroad  and 
the  Indians  there  have  not  been  affected  by  the  vices 
of  civilization.  Here  it  was  not  possible  during  the 
last  year  to  receive  all  the  children  who  came. 

The  Danish  Synod  has  been  at  work  in  Oklahoma 
since  1892.  It  contributed  in  1915,  $2,500  to  this  mis- 
sion. 

Alaska. 

Alaska  is  the  name  given  to  the  northwestern  cor- 
ner of  North  America  which  was  bought  by  the  United 
States  from  Russia  in  1867.  Its  area  is  about  five 
hundred  and  ninety  thousand  square  miles  and  is  equal 
to  that  of  all  the  northern  States  east  of  the 
Mississippi  with  the  addition  of  Virginia,  West  Vir- 
ginia, Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  The  population  in 
1890  was  sixty-three  thousand,  of  whom  twenty- 
five  thousand  were  Indians  and  Esquimaux.  The 
natives  are  superstitious  and  devoted  to  the  worship 
of  departed  spirits.  Though  the  North  of  Alaska  is 
uninhabitable,   the  South  has   a  temperate   Summer. 

Here  the  Norwegian  Synod  began  missionary  work 
in  1894  3t  Port  Clarance.     The  mission  was  begun  in 


210  THE  STORY  OP  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

buildings  furnished  by  the  United  States  government, 
which  had  suggested  the  undertaking.  The  first  mis- 
sionary, the  Rev.  T.  L.  Brcvig,  not  only  served  the 
colony  of  Norwegians  and  Lapps,  but  went  promptly 
to  work  among  the  native   Esquimaux. 

The  Synod  of  Wisconsin  has  four  or  five  ordained 
ministers  in  Alaska. 

The  American  Negro. 

The  American  Negro  offers  to  the  American  Chris- 
tian Church  one  of  its  most  pressing  responsibilities. 
Brought  to  this  country  against  his  will,  held  for  many 
years  in  slavery  in  which  independent  development 
was  out  of  the  question,  then  by  political  necessity  given 
in  addition  to  his  freedom  the  right  to  help  govern 
the  country  in  which  he  had  been  a  slave,  he  has  fur- 
nished for  himself  and  for  the  white  race  a  problem 
like  no  other  problem  in  the  world. 

Before  the  Civil  War  the  Christianization  of  the 
negro  was  carried  on  by  pious  individuals,  many  of 
them  slave-holders  and  by  various  churches.  There 
were  in  i860  before  the  outbreak  of  the  war  about 
half  a  million  negro  Christians,  belonging  chiefly  to 
the  Baptist  and  Methodist  churches.  This  num- 
ber has  increased  until  to-day  a  conservative  estimate 
would  fix  the  number  of  Christian  negroes  at  seven 
and  a  half  million. 

Another  motive  than  the  desire  to  win  the  negro 
for  the  kingdom  of  God  has  entered  into  much  of  the 
philanthropic  work  undertaken  by  the  white  race.  This 


THE    WESTERN    CONTINENT  211 

is  the  realization  of  the  menace  to  the  State  from  so 
large  an  uneducated,  uncivilized  and  alien  race  within 
it. 

y^That  the  negro  is  capable  of  profiting  by  educa- 
tion and  capable  of  becoming  a  valuable  citizen  is 
proved  in  many  waj's,  not  the  least  remarkable  of 
which  is  his  progress  in  religious  matters.  It  is  said 
that  no  other  people  give  a  larger  percentage  of  their 
earnings  to  religious  work.  Over  eight  per  cent  of 
the  total  wealth  of  the  negro  church  is  vested  in  its 
church  properties.  Late  reports  mention  four  large 
publishing  houses  which  issue  only  negro  church  lit- 
erature. All  the  important  negro  churches  now 
maintain  home  and  foreign  missionary  departments, 
which  contribute  over  $50,000  a  year  to  foreign  mis- 
sions, over  $100,000  to  home  missions,  employ  two 
hundred  missionaries  and  give  aid  to  three  hundred  and 
fifty  needy  churches.   ^ 

The  conditions  which  make  it  imperative  that  the 
American  should  raise  his  negro  associate  are  expressed 
by  Booker  Washington.  "When  I  was  a  boy  I  was 
the  champion  fighter  of  my  town.  I  used  to  love 
to  hold  the  boys  down  in  the  ditch  and  hear  them 
yell.  When  I  grew  older,  I  found  that  I  could  not 
hold  another  boy  down  in  the  ditch  without  staying 
there  with  him.  Nor  can  any  race  hold  another  down 
in  the  ditch  without  staying  down  in  the  ditch  with  it. 
Those  white  Christians  who  fear  the  rise  of  the  negro 
to    intellectual    and    material    independence   may    put 


212  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

their  fear  aside  if  they  give  him  with  education  the 
Christian  religion." 

The  early  Lutheran  pastors  in  America  showed  a 
practical  interest  in  the  spiritual  welfare  of  the  ne- 
groes. In  1704,  the  Rev.  Justus  Falckner  baptized 
the  daughter  of  negroes  who  were  members  of  the 
first  Lutheran  congregation  in  New  York.  The  beau- 
tiful prayer  which  he  made  upon  this  occasion  has  been 
recorded. 

"Lord,  merciful  God,  Thou  who  regardeth  not  the 
persons  of  men,  but,  in  every  nation,  he  that  feareth 
Thee  and  doeth  right  is  accepted  before  Thee;  clothe 
this  child  with  the  white  garment  of  innocence  and 
righteousness,  and  let  it  so  remain,  through  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Redeemer  and  Saviour  of  all  men." 

The  Rev.  Dr.  John  Bachman,  pastor  of  St.  John's 
Lutheran  Church,  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  had 
many  negroes  in  his  congregation.  He  sent  to  Gettys- 
burg Seminary,  Daniel  Payne,  a  colored  man  who  after- 
wards became  a  bishop  of  the  African  Methodist 
Church. 

The  Lutheran  Church  is  represented  in  work  for 
negroes  by  the  Synodical  Conference,  which  is  com- 
posed of  the  synods  of  Missouri,  Wisconsin,  Minne- 
sota, Michigan  and  Nebraska,  and  various  smaller 
bodies.  It  resolved  in  1877  to  take  up  work  among 
the  negroes,  its  first  missionary  being  the  Rev.  J.  F. 
Doescher,  who  began  his  activity  at  a  missionary  gath- 
ering at  New  Wells,  Missouri.  Travelling  through 
Arkansas,  Tennessee,  Georgia,  Florida,  Alabama,  Mis- 


THE    WESTERN    CONTINENT  213 

sissippi  and  Louisiana,  he  preached  wherever  he  could 
find  opportunity,  in  cities  and  villages  and  also  on 
large  plantations.  His  work  was  continued  by  other 
missionaries  and  by  the  Lutheran  churches  near  by. 
In  1 914  there  were  forty-six  preaching  places  served 
by  forty-nine  laborers,  thirty-one  of  whom  are  col- 
ored. The  total  membership  of  baptized  Christians 
was  two  thousand  four  hnndred  and  thirty  four. 

As  early  as  possible  in  the  history  of  this  work  it 
was  determined  to  educate  j^oung  men  to  be  preachers 
and  teachers  and  young  women  to  be  teachers  in  the 
colored  mission.  The  first  promising  boys  were  sent 
to  Springfield,  Illinois,  to  be  trained.  In  1903,  Im- 
manuel  College,  the  first  colored  Lutheran  college  was 
established  in  Greensboro,  North  Carolina.  Begin- 
ning in  a  school  house,  the  college  is  now  at  home  in 
a  large  stone  building  which  was  dedicated  in  1907. 
In  New  Orleans  the  Mission  supports  Luther  Col- 
lege. To  both  of  these  institutions  women  are  ad- 
mitted. The  six  women  graduates  from  the  Teacher's 
Course  of  Luther  College  and  the  eight  women  grad- 
uates from  the  Teacher's  Course  of  Immanuel  College 
have  given  the  mission  valuable  service  as  teachers. 

In  the  thirty-five  years  of  its  history  the  Synodical 
Conference  has  raised  $525,000  for  the  work  of  the 
colored  mission.  About  $30,000  of  this  sum  has  been 
raised  by  the  colored  churches  themselves.  The  an- 
nual expenses  of  the  mission  work  are  now  about 
$30,000  per  year.  To  its  funds  the  Norwegian 
Synod  contributes. 


214  THE  STORY  OP  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

The  Joint  Synod  of  Ohio  became  interested  in  the 
work  for  negroes  in  1 890,  when  the  first  colored  pastor 
was  received  into  its  membership  and  a  committee 
was  appointed  to  take  charge  of  the  work.  Until  19 11 
the  undertaking  was  limited  to  one  small  congrega- 
tion in  Baltimore,  then  an  advance  was  made  in  the 
establishing  of  a  mission  school  and  the  securing  of 
candidates  for  the  ministry.  In  19 15  activity  was  ex- 
tended into  the  heart  of  the  South  and  work  was  begun 
in  Jackson,  Mississippi.  A  desirable  church  property 
has  been  secured  and  a  parochial  school  is  conducted. 
In  1 916  a  school  was  established  in  Prattville,  Ala- 
bama. In  all  there  are  about  one  hundred  confirmed 
members,  two  hundred  children  in  three  parochial 
schools,  one  superintendent,  one  colored  pastor  and 
three  teachers. 

Conclusion. 

A  study  of  Lutheran  or  other  missions  would  be 
a  vain  and  useless  undertaking  if  it  did  not  leave 
the  student  with  his  eyes  upon  the  future  instead  of 
upon  the  past,  if  it  did  not  in  the  light  of  what  others 
have  done  show  him  his  own  duty  toward  the  millions 
still  untouched.  As  a  work  of  individuals.  Christian 
missions  may  truly  be  said  to  be  a  magnificent  accom- 
plishment; as  a  work  of  great  denominational  bodies 
of  Christians  the  result  is  small.  The  adding  of  fig- 
ure to  figure  may  seem  to  produce  enormous  totals. 
As  we  have  added  the  seventy  thousand  Christians  of 
the  Gossner  mission  in  India,  the  twenty  thousand  of 


THE    WESTERN    CONTINENT  215 

the  Basel  mission,  the  fifty  thousand  of  the  American 
Lutheran  mission  and  others  until  we  had  a  total  of 
two  hundred  and  sixteen  thousand  Indian  Lutheran 
Christians,  we  have  said  to  ourselves  that  the  work  was 
well  begun.  When  the  total  number  of  Protestant 
Christians  in  India  has  been  estimated  at  three  million 
five  hundred  thousand  we  have  felt  a  thrill  of  pride. 
But  India  has  a  population  of  three  hundred  million! 
Truly  our  beginning  is  small!  In  Africa  the  Protes- 
tant Christians  number  about  one  million  seven  hun- 
dred thousand ;  and  the  population  one  hundred  and 
eighty  million ;  in  South  Amerca  the  Protestant  Chris- 
tians number  two  hundred  thousand  and  the  population 
eighty  million !  China,  Japan,  the  vast  Mohammedan 
East — to  what  a  task  does  a  study  of  missions  open  our 
eyes! 

For  this  task  our  study  should  give  us  determination 
and  courage.  Though  the  results  have  seemed  small, 
they  have  been,  in  comparison  to  the  number  of  work- 
ers, enormous.  We  observe  a  thickly  settled  section  of 
India,  a  few  men  and  women, — preachers,  a  medical 
missionary,  a  few  nurses, — around  them  in  seventy  years 
fifty  thousand  Christians!  Were  our  Lutheran  Church 
really  to  awake,  how  rapidly  and  yet  how  thoroughly 
could  the  work  be  done!  Those  who  have  gone  be- 
fore us  have  opened  the  doors,  ours  is  the  opportunity 
to  enter.  It  is  estimated  that  in  India  one  of  every 
four  inquirers  for  truth  is  knocking  at  the  door  of 
a  Lutheran  mission.  Africa  lies  open  to  whoever 
will  possess  her,  in  China  our  standard  bearers  have 


216  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

claimed  a  great  territory;  South  America  is  ours  by 
right  of  first  possession.  This  opportunity  is  not  one 
which  may  be  seized  or  rejected;  thus  clearly  presented 
it  becomes  a  responsibility. 

Another  promise  for  the  future  is  the  material  aid 
which  the  Church  will  receive  from  those  whom  she 
has  converted  and  trained.  In  her  fields  in  China,  in  In- 
dia, in  South  Africa,  a  native  Church  is  being  slowly 
moulded.  The  Christian  courage  in  the  Boxer  up- 
rising proves  that  China  can  stand  fast.  Likewise 
did  the  great  mutiny  show  the  devotion  of  thousands  of 
Indian  Lutherans  to  the  Christian  religion.  Wher- 
ever there  are  converts  there  are  candidates  for  Chris- 
tian service.''  A  story  told  by  Rev.  C.  F.  Kuder  of 
the  Rajahmundry  mission  is  rich  in  suggestion  for  us 
all. 

A  New  Definition. 

"Four  hundred  Lutherans  were  assembled  in  one  of 
our  annual  conferences  in  India.  Missionary  Eckardt, 
who  is  the  Livingstone  of  our  Mission,  was  speaking. 
He  has  gone  farther  inland  than  any  of  his  prede- 
cessors had  gone.  His  district  embraces  three  hundred 
thousand  people,  who  have  no  hope  of  hearing  the 
Gospel  unless  he  brings  it  to  them. 

"He  stood  up  that  day  at  the  conference,  and  said 
that  up  in  the  hills,  where  there  were  a  number  of 
Christians,  but  more  heathen,  a  hill  had  been  given  him 
by  a  heathen,  on  condition  that  a  church  would  be  built 
on  it.     He  said  that  it  would  be  a  center  for  all  the 


IMMANUEL     COLORFD     LUTHERAN     COLLEGE.     GREENSBORO, 
NORTH    CAROLINA. 

BETHANY  INDIAN  MISSION   BAND,  WITTENBERG,  WISCONSIN. 
(NORWEGIAN    SYNOD) 


THE    WESTERN    CONTINENT  217 

Christians  in  that  locah'ty,  and  a  constant  call  to  the 
heathen  to  come  to  the  living  God.  The  difficulty 
was:  how  to  get  the  money  to  build  the  church?  He 
did  not  want  to  ask  the  Christians  in  America  for  it ; 
so  he  asked  whether  our  Christians  in  India  would  not 
help  him? 

"^The  conference  listened  with  interest  and  sympathy. 
The  hill-country  had  for  years  been  its  home  mission 
field.  After  much  casting  about  for  some  satisfactory 
method,  the  suggestion  was  made  that  all  the  Chris- 
tians be  asked  to  practice  self-denial  from  Ash  Wed- 
nesday to  Palm  Sunday,  bringing  their  free-will  offer- 
ings to  the  service  on  Palm  Sunday. 

"When  the  proposition  was  announced  to  the  Rajah- 
mundry  congregation,  the  interested  faces,  quickened 
ej^es,  and,  in  some  cases,  the  tucking  of  heads  to  one 
side,  all  bespoke  approval  and  willingness  to  help. 

"And  what  did  the  members  do?  They  cut  off  a 
little  here  and  a  little  there ;  true,  only  a  little,  for  if 
it  had  been  much,  there  would  not  have  been  anything 
left  for  themselves.  More  than  a  little  would  have 
been  all. 

"There  were  women  who  were  widows  in  the  con- 
gregation, whose  income  was  about  five  cents  a  day. 
With  that  they  had  to  provide  food,  clothing  and,  in 
some  cases,  shelter.  Of  course,  it  goes  without  say- 
ing that  living  in  India  is  very  cheap,  but  it  goes  equally 
well  without  saying  that  such  widows  do  not  live  on 
broiled  pigeons,  peacocks'  tongues,  and  other  delica- 
cies.    The  truth   is,   that  they  must  practice  self-de- 


218  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN   MISSIONS 

nial,  not  only  in  Lent,  but  throughout  the  year.  They 
rarely  are  able  to  have  enough  to  eat  to  satisfy  hunger 
fully.  It  is  estimated  that  over  sixty  million  people 
in  India  go  to  bed  hungry  every  night. 

"But  what  did  they  do?  In  the  evenings,  when  they 
measured  out  their  rice,  they  would  say  to  themselves: 
'I  must  help  to  build  that  little  church  up  in  the  hills, 
so  that  the  women  up  there  may  learn  to  know  my 
Redeemer.  I  could  eat  all  this  rice,  but  if  I  can  live 
with  so  much,  I  can  also  live  on  a  few  mouthfuls 
less.  I'll  give  up  a  little  rice  cheerfully,  so  they  may 
have  that  meat  which  perisheth  not.' 

"Then  they  would  take  out  a  pinch  of  the  raw  rice 
and  put  it  aside  in  a  bowl  for  safe-keeping.  This  they 
did  until  Palm  Sunday.  Then  they  measured  the  rice 
saved  and  brought  its  value  to  the  Lord. 

"No,  it  was  not  much — probably,  in  most  cases,  not 
more  than  ten  cents — but  it  was  given  of  their  neces- 
sity— taken    out   of   their   mouths. 

"In  the  boys'  school  were  some  one  hundred  and 
sixty  boys,  from  about  nine  to  fifteen  years  of  age. 
Money?  They  had  so  little  they  scarcely  knew  the 
color  of  it ;  but  deep  down  in  their  hearts  was  an 
earnest  desire.  They,  too,  felt  they  must  help  to  build 
the  little  church  on  the  hills ! 

"One  evening,  a  day  or  two  before  Ash  Wednesday, 
the  manager  heard  many  voices  at  the  door  of  the 
teacher  who  had  charge  of  the  boarding  department. 
There  was  an  interested  consultation,  and  then  he 
heard  the  boys  troop  back  to  their  rooms  with  many 


THE    WESTERN    CONTINENT  219 

little  shouts  of  gratulation  and  glee,  and  many  a 
"bagunnadi"  (it  is  good). 

"The  next  morning  the  teacher  came  to  the  manager 
with  a  queer  smile. 

"What  were  the  boys  up  to  last  night?'  queried 
the  latter. 

"  'They  asked  for  permission  to  go  without  their  sup- 
per once  a  week,  on  condition  that  the  money  saved 
be  given  them  for  the  little  church  up  in  the  hills,' 
was  the  reply. 

"  'What  did  you  say  to  them  ?' 

"  *I  said  they  might,  if  you  consented.' 

"  'Oh,  said  the  manager,  'I  think  it  will  not  hurt 
them.  Let  them  try  it;  but  we  must  keep  a  watch 
on  them  that  they  do  not  get  sick.' 

"  'Yes,'  replied  the  teacher,  'but  they  were  not  satis- 
fied with  that.  They  worked  out  how  much  it  would 
make,  and  this  morning  they  came  back  to  request 
that  they  be  allowed  to  go  without  supper  twice  a 
week!' 

"The  manager,  catching  their  enthusiasm,  said,  'Let 
them  try  it.' 

"Growing  boys  have  hearty  appetites,  and  it  was  not 
easy  for  those  lads  to  go  to  sleep  supperless  every  Tues- 
day and  Thursday  evening  during  those  weeks,  but 
there  was  never  a  murmur. 

"Palm  Sunday  came.  No  one  ever  saw  brighter- 
eyed  boys  than  those  who  walked  to  church  that  morn- 
ing from  our  school.  When  the  offerings  were  re- 
ceived, they  put  a  solid  lump  of  silver  coins  on  the 


220  THE  STORY  OF  LUTHERAN  MISSIONS 

plate.  It  contained  twenty-five  rupees — eight  dollars 
and  thirty-three  cents. 

"The  girls  in  their  school  had  been  securing  an  offer- 
ing in  a  similar  way,  and  they  brought  only  thirty 
cents  less. 

"That  day  there  was  laid  on  the  plate  a  total  offer- 
ing of  ninety  dollars! 

"This  is  the  Telugu  Lutheran  definition  of  self-de- 
nial" 

If  the  devotion  of  the  Church  at  home  even  dis- 
tantly approached  such  devotion  as  this  how  quickly 
might  the  work  be  accomplished!  ^ 

The  world  is  still  overshadowed  by  the  apparently 
impenetrable  cloud  of  a  great  war.  The  condition  of 
hundreds  of  mission  stations  is  a  matter  for  serious 
anxiety.  When  the  war  closes  it  is  likely  that  there 
will  be  new  boundaries,  British  colonies  now  Ger- 
man colonies,  or  German  colonies  now  British  colonies. 
Each  change  of  this  kind  will  bring  into  existence 
new  complications  for  missionary  policy  to  meet.  The 
Christian  Church  will  need  faith  and  courage  to  take 
up  a  task  so  sadly  interrupted  and  marred. 

It  is  certain,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  Church 
will  have  access  to  new  mission  fields.  Such  has  been 
the  single  gleam  of  brightness  through  many  war 
clouds  in  the  past. 

For  the  Church  of  Christ  the  war  has  a  lesson  which 
must  be  learned.  There  is  but  one  cure  for  war — the 
evangelization  of  the  world.  May  all  the  Christian 
world  by  missionary  effort  prevent  the  repetition  of  so 


THE    WESTERN    CONTINENT  221 

terrible  a  catastrophe!  May  especially  our  own  Church 
come  daily  into  a  clearer  realization  of  her  mission! 
As  the  time  of  Christ  and  his  apostles  was  a  time  of 
seed-sowing,  so  was  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  By 
Martin  Luther  the  world  was  shown  once  more  the 
Way  of  Salvation,  By  Martin  Luther  the  Holy  Bi- 
ble, the  infallible  guide,  was  put  once  more  into  the 
hands  of  mankind,  so  that  true  religion  and  true  liberty 
might  be  forever  preserved.  Let  us  look  well  to  our 
ways  that  after  the  seed-sowing  may  come  the  harvest. 


BIBB  TB,  29 

10-19-00  32180      rs 


Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Libraries 


1    1012  01290   8325 


